Printer manufacturers would like their customers to think they will be sent right to jail if they use a recycled printer or toner cartridge. Why do they want to keep customers using their proprietary printer cartridges? Because it’s a continuing source of income, while a printer is a one-time purchase.
Luckily, there are several court rulings that fall firmly on the side of the consumer. Once someone – business or individual – has purchased a printer, they can use it however they choose, including purchasing recycled printer cartridges from Green Imaging Solutions or another business.
In this blog post, we’ll cover the misconceptions consumers have about recycled printer cartridges, the laws protecting consumers, and some of the advantages of recycled printer and toner cartridges.
Printer Cartridge Myths
You may have heard that using recycled printer cartridges will invalidate your warranty, that it would damage your pricey equipment, or that it is just not safe – or even legal – to use anything other than original equipment manufacturer cartridges. In terms of quality, output, and price, remanufactured cartridges have been demonstrated to outperform OEM printer cartridges. PC World and the Rochester Institute of Technology discovered that all remanufactured cartridges generated more printed output than OEM cartridges in a comparison of OEM cartridges and remanufactured toner cartridges. They used brand-name and third-party ink and toner cartridges to evaluate inkjet printers from Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, and Lexmark. Their findings revealed that all remanufactured ink cartridges were less expensive, generated more printed items per cartridge, and created higher-quality prints that were less prone to fading. Remanufactured printer cartridges are not only less expensive than OEM cartridges, but they also produce higher-quality prints that are more resistant to fading.
They’re Safe To Use
Remanufactured ink/toner cartridges are refurbished OEM cartridges. They are completely cleaned in a controlled atmosphere after being evaluated to verify that the cartridge shell is in good shape. After that, the cartridge shells are rebuilt with new parts that help in cartridge functioning. The number of parts changed may vary, and there will be other differences in how an ink cartridge is remanufactured vs a toner cartridge. Remanufactured cartridges, on the other hand, generally have some or all of the following parts replaced:
- A microprocessor, a drum, springs, and wiper blades
- A sponge, sealant (to prevent ink leakage), and a microchip
Because they are produced from recycled OEM casings, remanufactured cartridges will fit perfectly into your printer.
The Law Is On Your Side
Magnuson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act
This federal law, put into place in 1975, sets the standards for warranties in the United States. The law states:
“No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer’s using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade, or corporate name; except that the prohibition of this subsection may be waived by the commission if:
- The warrantor satisfies the Commission that the warranted product will function only if the article or service so identified is used in connection with the warranted product
- The commission finds that such a waiver is in the public interest.
What does that mean for you? It means that the printer manufacturer can’t void your warranty because you use a cartridge or refill made by someone other than the OEM. This includes remanufactured or recycled cartridges.
IBM Vs. The United States (The Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Law)
The Supreme Court ruled in IBM vs. the United States that IBM couldn’t threaten clients with the termination of their data processing equipment leases simply because they didn’t use IBM supplies. This behavior formed a tying agreement and was determined to be illegal under the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts.
Impression Products vs. Lexmark International
According to the May 30, 2017, opinion of the United States Supreme Court in the matter of Impression Products, Inc. vs. Lexmark International, Inc., printer firms cannot force you to use their OEM cartridges after purchasing one of their printers. Essentially, the Supreme Court upheld the “exhaustion theory,” which states that if you buy a company’s printer, you may do whatever you want with it, including buying as many remanufactured toner cartridges as you like. Because printer companies are not allowed by law to force you to buy their costly toner cartridges.
Advantages of Recycled Printer Cartridges
As we said before, remanufactured or recycled printer cartridges have been proven to be as good, if not better, than the expensive ones your printer manufacturer wants you to buy. But there’s another really important reason to consider using remanufactured printer cartridges and recycling your used printer and toner cartridges.
Every year, 350 million ink cartridges are discarded in landfills throughout the world. In a landfill, plastic can take up to 1,000 years to disintegrate!
The good news is that recycling and remanufacturing ink cartridges helps to reduce the vast quantity of plastic that is discarded. Almost every material in a printer cartridge may be recycled or reused.
Recycling used printer cartridges conserves energy and natural resources, lowering the need for raw materials to manufacture new ones. For every 100,000 recycled print cartridges, we can save 9599 kilograms of aluminum, 40 tons of plastic, and 1,000,000 liters of oil.
Buy Recycled Printer Cartridges with GIS
The idea of disposable printer ink & toner cartridges is a myth perpetuated by printing manufacturing companies. Printer ink & toner cartridges are NOT disposable, and should always be recycled.
These ink & toner cartridges can be remanufactured, refilled, and reused over and over again. Recycling your depleted printer ink & toner cartridges reduces the need to manufacture new cartridges and helps prevent discarded cartridges from landing in our landfills.
Recycling your used cartridges is simple. Visit our recycling page to learn more!
Working with Green Imaging Solutions will help conserve the world’s energy and natural resources. We do our part to ensure less waste by providing recycling options at no charge and remanufacturing cartridges. Each day millions of empty cartridges end up in landfills and ultimately increase pollution. Shopping with Green Imaging Solutions interrupts that cycle!
