Although they supply US and Canada it's not really worth it outside Europe - let me know if you know a good company for there!
Don’t Waste those Empty Toner Cartridges
THe environmental battle is real, urgent and you can help. If you own a laser printer and end up throwing those empty toner cartridges away. There’s lots of ways you can do this by starting to recycle them.
Remember the mantra for our day has to “reduce, reuse and recycle”
the simple fact is that yoou can save valuable raw materials, energy and waste by simply using your lasetr toner cartridges again. In Europe there are nearly 50 million laser cartidges bought each year, 95% of these only get used once. Considering each new cartridge takes between 1 and 2 litres of oil to produce, that’s a lot of waste.
These cartridges end up in landfill areas, thousands of tons every year across the world. The materials don’t exactly decompose quickly either, the plastics are usually non-biodegradable. Every single time you reuse a cartridge you save on waste landfill.
Don’t throw these empty toner cartridges away or even send off to the many ‘so-called’ environmentally friendly remanufacture schemes, designed to save the print companies eco-reputation. Remember these empty toner cartridges all used to come with a little stopper which you could use to refill with compatible toner ink, now that’s eco friendly.
However the printng companies realised they were missing out on a huge source of revenue here – so they removed them.
You can Refill those Empty Toner Cartridges!
There are many companies who can provide you with simple kits which can refill most empty toner cartridges. Many of these cartidges can be refilled 4 or 5 times with no real problems and each time you are saving up to 87% of the cost of a new laser toner cartridge.
All you need is one of the kits and some compatible toner to refill it, most cases it’s a 5 minute job, and requires no real skill. Empty toner cartridges still work they just have run out of ink so just refill them.
It’s true these cartridges are not broken, they’re not faulty, they are merely empty. If you notice a little plug or stopper on your cartridge, it means that your toner is one of the lucky few and is designed to be refilled. Just buy some replacement toner and refill the empty cartridge.
Other cartridges need you to create a refiller hole but it’s very simple with the right kit anyone can do this. You don’t need to tamper with the cartidge itself (as you have to in remanufacturing), so there’s little that can go wrong. You’re just filling it up with ink.
They won’t damage your printer, and you can refill the cartridge until you see a deterioration in the print quality and then simply buy a new one. The advantage you will have saved hundreds of dollars and reduced environmental waste significantly. Imagine if everyone did this, saving millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands less toner cartridges being produced and thrown away.
So explore our site and check out some links, please don’t throw away those empty toner cartridges, refill them and save some money.
Important Facts About Toner Refills
With the help of laser cartridges, you can save important raw materials, waste and energy. There are a lot of ways you can do this and even recycle laser cartridges.
The environmental battle cry is to “reduce, reuse and recycle!”
You can save important raw materials, waste and energy by using your laser cartridges again. In fact, there are approximately 44 million laser cartridges that are bought every year in Europe. 95% of these laser cartridges in the UK are thrown out after only one usage. Every cartridge has 1 to 2 liters of oil. It also has aluminum and steel. Every time you repeat using these cartridges, you will save these important, non-renewable resources and energy.
Almost all laser cartridges are thrown off in landfill areas. In the UK, the number has already reached 10,000 tons of material every year. The materials in the cartridge, such as plastic and other are non-biodegradable, does not decompose even for many centuries. This means that every time you reuse a cartridge, you can save on waste landfills.
Hence, it is also a good decision to reuse or refill your toner rather than replace them. This can definitely cut down on your toner cost. This is especially true once you cut down on your toner refills.
There are even companies who can provide these services for you.
You can save money by refilling your own printer. You can buy toner refill kits and do the job yourself. Replacing your printer cartridges is a bit expensive. More often, it will cost you more than the price of your printer.
Using a bottle of refill toner can fill your cartridge. It will save you up to 87%. It can be used often as well. You will be able to save more because of these toner refills. Of course, it will also depend on the kind of printer you have. It also varies on how often you need to buy these. Normally, customers can save around 50% on the price of their printer cartridges.
It is good that you can refill fax and photocopier toner cartridges also. Just don’t scrap it, restore it with fresh toner powder and it becomes easy to refill.
Here’s how:
- Just unplug and pour!
In other laser printers, fax machines as well as copiers, refilling toners is as easy as removing the filler plug. It is also as easy as opening the shutter and pouring it in with the latest funnel.
- Just unscrew, unplug and pour!
In other laser printers, before you reach the filter plug, you need to unscrew it first.
- Just melt hole and pour!
Sometimes it’s a bit harder to open the filler hole. With the use of a special tool, you can melt it and open your own filler hole within the cartridge. It only takes a few seconds for the cartridge to become filled.
- It is mess-free and quick.
It takes only few minutes to refill. The kit contains everything you need for a quick, mess-free, professional job. By using the top seals of the funnel towards the bottle, it will be very easy to have the contents poured-in.
Instructions are provided, along with detailed steps for most of the models. It also contains some information on preparing the work surface and handling the powder without mess.
Will it work?
Yes, it does! The advantage of filling this up with powder is that you won’t disturb the inner working of the cartridge.
How often?
A new or remanufactured cartridge will stand for at least another two fills before losing its quality. Those with no imaging drum can last for 5 or more fills.
Does it have good quality results?
Almost all powders are formulated for all models. They are tested and guaranteed, bringing no damage to your printers. The quality should also be the same as when it ran out the first time you filled it.
Thus, you can remain in control of the quality of your print by reusing your cartridges. Cartridge components will degrade in time. You can also decide when the time has come to find a new one. The unused powder can also be used in another cartridge.
Why You Should Refill Toner Cartridges
Has anyone seen a photocopier being opened and ink poured in – they all used to be refilled like this – businesses used to buy big bottles of toner ink and simply top up their cartridges. Laser printers where exactly the same – you’d buy a big bottle of ink powder and top up the cartridge when needed. All the laser toner cartridges had little screw openers so you could refill them easily from ink bought from any printer supplier.
Alas those days are gone – the printer manufacturers realized that it was much more profitable to keep reselling you a new cartridge rather than allowing you to easily refill the laser toner cartridges. Gone went the removable stoppers as they sealed the unit and many manufacturers even started adding a small chip disabling the toner cartridge when it had printed so many pages. They are in fact actively artificially reducing the life of the cartridges in order to sell more replacements.
We have all have been brought up with capitalism so we know how the markets work and the profit motives of these companies. The environmental effect of this is less apparent though.
To produce a new toner cartridge from scratch takes approximately 1-2 liters of oil – so if we you refill a toner cartridge you are instantly saving nearly 2 liters of a limited resource.
Two Liters Doesn’t sound too much ?
Well possibly it isn’t but there are approximately 44 million new laser toner cartridges used every year in Europe – the majority of these can be refilled and used again. Over 73% of these cartridges are used once only ! The environmental impact of this is huge especially as we are discarding cartridges that are easily reused – every time we refill a cartridge we save the environmental impact of producing another one and also save ourselves the cost of buying it!
So how to refill a toner cartridge ?
Well its extremely easy – it varies from cartridge to toner cartridge but generally takes no more than a few minutes and certainly doesn’t require any special skills. It’s important to get the right instructions for a specific printer as this makes it refilling the toner extremely straightforward.
Go to an expert who can sell you the exact kit for your printer and also who will answer any queries you may have about How to refill a toner cartridge.
Apart from the environmental impact – refilling your toner cartridge yourself also save a lot of money – sometimes up to 87% of the cost of a brand new cartridge. The beauty of refilling as opposed to re-manufacturing is you’re actually not physically tampering with the working parts in the cartridge – all you’re doing is pouring in new ink toner into the cartridge.
If you have a Laser printer and want to save money and help the environment – check this out it really does work – laser toner refills. If you want to see my favourite inkjet printer with refreshingly inexpensive ink read my review here –
pixma mx850 review
Joe Simpson
Refill Toner?
Someone fills toner, I’ve tried Office Depot, Staples and CVS but no luck. I’m sure some major store does refill toner from empty cartridges? I’ve seen a sign somewhere but can’t recall !
Should I Refill my Cartridge with Compatible Toner?
We’ve all wondered about whether we should risk refilling our cartidges with compatible toner. Especially us laser printer owners faced with throwing or sending away that huge plastic manufactured cartridge just because it’s ran out of ink.
Last year I was faced with a bill of several hundreds of dollars to replace the laser toner cartridges in my Lexmark laser printer. The bill was actually more than the cost of the printer and I was not very impressed.
The manufacturers of printers both inkjet and laser printers make massive profits based on what I like to call razor blade economics. The ploy is you manufacture a device (such as a razor or printer) and then make sure that using the product is hugely expensive. If you don’t buy the consumables (the toner or blades) then the product is useless to you.
You can refill Toner Cartridges
Less than a decade ago, most devices which used toner were refilled from a plastic bottle of ink.
You’d simply open a stopper and refill with toner ink, it was quick and simple to do. Nowadays these companies actually develop technology to stop you refilling the cartridges.
TONER FACT 1
The average toner cartridge takes between 1 and 2 litres of oil to manufacture. Every time you re-use that toner cartridge that’s one less that needs to be produced.
TONER FACT 2
The average toner cartridge does not need replacing when it has run out of ink. The only reason is that the manufacturers make much more money by forcing you to buy a new laser cartridge or by making you send it back to them for ‘remanufacture’.
Should I use Compatible Toner to refill ?
If your laser printer has just run out ink, and you are looking for a replacement, stop for a minute and look at that cartridge.
- Does it look like it has been manufactured to last one print run?
- Is it falling to bits ?
- Does it look damaged or worn out?
I can tell you now, if all it’s done is sit in your printer, it’s fine there is only one problem it has run out of ink. That’s all, nothing else, 10 years ago we would have opened a little stopped poured in some toner ink and carried on printing.
Alas the firms making these printers have taken away the stoppers allowing us to refill them, of course they make much more money by selling us new ones. But you can still refill the vast majority of toner cartridges with compatible toner.
So if you want to Save Money, if you want to help the environment and if you want to reduce profits for the big printer companies then make sure you refill your toner cartridges with compatible toner. There are more and more companies appearing now that do this, please feel free to recommend any that you’ve used.
This company is one I have used on several occasions – Toner Topup , extremely knowledgeable and they have hundreds of custom kits for specific printers.