£30m Reasons Why UK Businesses Should Recycle Ink Cartridges

According to new research, British businesses stand to save up to £30 million per year if they recycle their used ink and toner cartridges.

UK printing firm CartridgePeople.com surveyed 1,000 UK workers on their recycling policies and processes within their organisations.

The research found that just 11 per cent of these organisations currently recycle ink and toner cartridges by sending them to a recycling centre, or refilling with ink to reuse in the business. This is an increase of 5 per cent from a previous survey carried out in 2014.

And, based on recycling costs provided by recycling organisation, Empties Please, these habits could be costing UK businesses approximately £30 million per year.

Business Falling Behind

More than 40 million ink cartridges are dumped each year in the UK, instead of being reused or recycled. If disposed of in general waste, ink cartridges can take up to 1,000 years to decompose.

CartridgePeople revealed that businesses in the UK are failing to reduce their carbon footprint in the office, despite the increase in household waste being recycled in the UK.

When questioned on the reasons for not recycling ink cartridges, 38 per cent of respondents confessed that there are currently no processes in place to encourage recycling at work.

The survey also revealed that 1 in 20 employees in the UK choose to ignore the recycling policies that do exist in workplaces, and put everything in general waste.

CartridgePeople.com spokesperson, Andrew Davies, said: “Many businesses and workers are unaware of the savings and extra revenue that can potentially be made from recycling ink cartridges. Ink cartridge recycling firms can pay up to 75p for original branded, or even remanufactured, ink cartridges.

“An individual ink cartridge can be reused or remanufactured by an ink cartridge recycling centre up to seven times, which reduces the amount going straight into landfill. We work with many companies in the UK to help reduce their carbon footprint and wastage, by supplying ink cartridge refill kits and tanks amongst other recyclable office supplies including LED bulbs and stationery.”

In the UK, the industries with the most green office policies are:

• Design, Media and Marketing
• Education
• Manufacturing
• Food and Catering
• Administrative and support services

The financial and legal sectors currently have the fewest green policies of all the industries covered in the survey.

Reducing Carbon Footprint

CartridgePeople offered the following tips to businesses to help reduce their carbon footprint, and encourage recycling within the office environment.

• Green Printing

To reduce financial and economic damage during the printing process, businesses can recycle or refill ink cartridges, use recycled paper, and keep hardware such as printers up to date. A new printer will be more energy efficient, in addition to producing an improved quality of print.

• Switch Off and Unplug

Encourage all staff and employees to switch everything off at the end of the day, including all lights and equipment. This will not only save money on energy bills, but reduce overall consumption.

• Which Bin Is It In

Make it easy for your company to recycle, by introducing paper and plastic bins for workers in which they can easily recycle their waste. In addition to this, businesses produce technological waste such as mobile phones, cameras, obsolete laptops and computers, which can be toxic for the environment when sent to landfill. There are many companies that will recycle and refurbish old tech.

CartridgePeople.com is a leading UK retailer of high quality printer ink cartridges, supplying home users, businesses and public sector organisations including schools and Government departments.