In case you’re wondering just what to do with your empty ink cartridges, we’ve come up with a few fun do’s and don’ts.
Posts Tagged ‘Refilling’
What (Not) To Do With Your Empty Ink Cartridges
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Less Paper and Less Ink in 2010 US Census
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009When it comes to saving the environment, we all have to do our part. Only by acting together can we hope to reduce, stop and maybe even reverse the damage we are doing to our planet. It’s all too easy to pass on the blame to other people; the government, the big business – even our neighbors (it doesn’t matter how much the people next door throw away, it doesn’t make it alright for you to do the same!)
I can’t be denied, however, that our governments do have to start pulling their weight when it comes to making genuine changes to help the environment. It’s all very well them making our wheelie bins smaller, but what use is that when they still produce tons of waste at every party conference? For once, however, the USA has made a change for the better – by cutting down the size of the US Census for 2010! Apparently the new one will printed on recycled paper and only be 10 questions long, taking only 10 minutes to complete! When you consider how many tens of millions of these documents they are going to have to produce, that’s a massive saving of paper from last time; not to mention the thousands of ink cartridges that will be spared! In fact, compared to the census 10 years ago, the Census Bureau will use 30% less ink for this one!
Finally, a world-leading government is practicing what it preaches!
Fear Not: You’re Getting Your Money’s Worth
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009Anybody who does a fair amount of printing will, at some point, have looked into a cartridge before changing it. It’s just something that has to be done, like looking into a tissue after you blow your nose. If you are one of those people who have peeked, you may have been surprised to see that the colour cartridges weren’t empty, even though the printer declared them to be so! Outrageous!
Never fear, however, for I have some good news. The first time this happened to me, I was livid; ink cartridges aren’t cheap and I felt as though the printer company were ripping me off by designing their machines to make me buy more ink when I didn’t need it! I’d paid for a full cartridge, so I deserved a full cartridge! Being me, I was on the phone in nanoseconds and, before long, I understood.
Apparently, no matter how much ink may be left in the cartridge, the amount of ink that has been used by the printer meets the calculation provided in the product information. So if it was meant to give 50ml of ink and there was 5ml left, the chances are that there was 55ml to start with. Sound ridiculous to me, but that is what they assured me was the case. According to the guy on the phone, they need to make sure there is a little bit of ink left to prevent air from drying out the print head assembly. So really I should have been grateful! Ah well, it was good to have a rant.
Refilling Ink Cartridges
Friday, October 9th, 2009In an effort to do more to save money and the environment, there is a growing trend in people refilling old ink cartridges. It makes sense; it is far cheaper to buy a refilled ink cartridge, or get yours refilled than it is to buy brand new ones every time you run out of ink. When it comes to considering the environment; millions of cartridges are sold every year – all of which take valuable resource to make, yet end up in the ground.
If you decide to save some money and invest in refilled ink cartridges, however, there are a couple of things you should look out for. For starters, make sure you use a reputable company; dodgy back street shops do, unsurprisingly, offer cheap refills, but are well known to use ink of a far inferior standard to that which you can expect from a reputable vendor. This cheap ink can stick to jets, blocking them and destroying the cartridges – sometimes even ruining the entire printer as well! Buying refilled ink cartridges to save money is a wise move, but it’s definitely not clever to try to do it on the super-cheap!
When you’ve found your trustworthy shop or website (try us!), you may want to see if they can refill your own printer cartridge for you. If you decide to do this, however, be aware that your cartridge might not be up to the job. As they get older, the circuitry on the outside of printer cartridges gets worn and tired, until eventually the printer can’t read from the cartridge. If this is the case, no amount of refilling is going to help – it’s time to buy a new one! Luckily the same shops and websites that refill your cartridges often sell refilled cartridges far cheaper than brand new ones too! So you won’t have to look far.
