New Delhi
March 19th, 2008

Those into remanufacturing of cartridges are telling all who are willing to listen that this practice saves money as well the environment. Finally it looks like customers and channel partners too are waking up to these facts.

Simply put, remanufacturing means reusing and refilling ink and toner printer cartridges so they can be used again. The modus operandi followed is that used cartridges are collected from consumers and businesses, and sorted by remanufacturers.

These cartridges are disassembled and cleaned, and any necessary replacement parts are added. High-quality toner or ink is added, and the cartridges are tested and packaged for distribution.

Remanufactured cartridges contain high-quality components, and give excellent printing results. More than three million companies around the world already rely on these quality products for their printing needs. They trust the quality and reliability of remanufactured cartridges for their day-to-day printing needs as well as for their most important projects.

Now let's take a different take on this concept. Every year, more than 300 million plastic printer cartridges end up dumped in landfills in the US and around the world - almost eight cartridges are thrown away in the US every second, industry sources say. While we can never completely stop the cycle of cartridges entering the waste stream, we can at least stem the flow.

According to Lyra Research, in 2002 almost one billion toner and inkjet cartridges will be shipped worldwide, and only 13 percent of those will be third-party cartridges, many of which are remanufactured.

Remanufacturing matters. Every cartridge that we remanufacture is one fewer going directly to the landfill. For every remanufactured cartridge purchased, it's one less new cartridge that needs to be produced, saving it from entering the waste stream and from draining the planet's natural resources.

In fact, many printer cartridges end up dumped in places you'd never expect - in rural areas of Asia, where they often end up dumped in rivers or stacked along roads, according to a recent report by environmental groups.

Why consider remanufactured cartridges
Many companies want to be environmentally sensitive, but the main reason they use remanufactured cartridges is to save money. Most remanufactured cartridges are 40 to 60 percent cheaper than the original equipment manufacturers' (OEM) cartridges, with comparable quality and reliability.

In fact, many remanufactured cartridges last longer, as they often have up to 20 percent more toner than OEM cartridges. In short, printer cartridges don't need to be so expensive.

In order to protect their profit margins, the OEMs often claim that non-OEM cartridges might damage your printer. No manufacturer (or remanufacturer) can guarantee that a cartridge will never fail, but there is little chance that a toner or ink cartridge could ever affect the functionality of a printer or fax machine.

Plus, many remanufacturers offer guarantees, promising to repair any possible related damage; due to the excellent quality of remanufactured products, this is an offer they almost never have to make good on.

The way many OEMs design their cartridges discourages reuse and remanufacturing. It would benefit both the environment and consumers for the cartridges to be designed so that they can be reused more easily.

Plus, many remanufacturers are small businesses, employing workers from the local communities. There are more than 500,000 people employed by remanufacturers in the US.

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