300 RECYCLING

What percentage of ink and toner cartridges do you think are recycled in the UK? 80%? 70%? Maybe as low as 50%? You’d probably be disappointed if it was less than half, right? What if we told you that it was actually 15%? That’s right, just 15% of cartridges are recycled in the UK. With 65 million cartridges used annually, this means that over 55 million end up in landfill each year. The plastic in a toner cartridge can take up to 1000 years to degrade and toner itself is considered hazardous waste. Not the sort of stuff you’d want to bury at the bottom of your garden - especially when you consider that a toner cartridge is 97% recyclable. To put this in perspective, recycling 100, 000 cartridges will save over 9.5 tonnes of aluminium, 40 tonnes of plastic and 1 million litres of oil. We all like to think that we’re socially responsible and environmentally aware so why do so few of us recycle our toners? In short, many people are simply unaware that their cartridges can be recycled.