Toner and ink cartridges – we live in a world where we can’t live without them. There was a time when men used to carve their documented accounts into clay, stone, or wood. Can you imagine being the person who had to mass produce these accounts to pass out copies to the village? (Not that this happened – let’s just use the idea as a visual.) Yikes. No thanks.
Fast forward to 2607 B.C. when the first known instance of ink was introduced to man – and even still, the thought of creating multiple copies of any written testament seems like a daunting and impossible task given the means we have to quickly reproduce documents today.
It wasn’t until 1939 (A.D.) that we started to see a print trend that is more in line of what we’re used to current day. It was here that a man named Charles Carlson developed the print technology known as Electrography, which was adopted by print giant Xerox, and promptly served as the framework for a print revolution that changed the face of document reproduction for the rest of time. As prices dropped from approximately $20,000 (really) to less than $100 for today’s printing units, home printing became big business, and easy for families to attain. Desktop publishing is now as much a part of everyday life as putting a toothbrush to your teeth is. It’s not something we put too much thought into – it’s just ultimately there; in our homes, at our disposal, whenever we need it.
The biggest issue with this transition is the amount of waste our toner and ink cartridges are creating. Their detriment to our environment is devastating and in the excitement of change, we lost the ability to look out into the future for a second. We forgot about one of our oldest adopted skills: Foresight.
We live in a time where we’re trying to rewind for a second and get back to our roots as much as possible (without completely compromising any of the comforts we’ve grown accustomed too). We’re in the middle of what could be referred to as the “green revolution”. Recycling has been pushed wholeheartedly upon us and once a week, you’re hard pressed to find a house that doesn’t have a recycling bin out on the curb for a truck to come, pick up and deliver to the proper recycling plant. Things like plastic and glass bottles, cans, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, etc., are finding their way back into the production stream in some facet. It’s good practice really. Why keep harvesting raw material, when we can reuse and repurpose packaging that we’re finished with, but could still very much serve a purpose?
Print cartridges are no different. We need to make it a part of our psyche to make the effort to keep these units out of our landfills. Currently it is shown that approximately 375 million cartridges find their ways into our landfills. There are some startling stats representing the breakdown there which you can (and should) research for yourself. The long and short of it is this: A general print cartridge takes as much as 1,000 years to decompose. That’s ludicrous. When you make an effort to recycle these same cartridges, which can still very much be refilled and/or repurposed, you’re doing a world of good for the environment and in turn, our children’s futures. You help by reducing air and water pollution that is emanated from landfills, and the incineration/manufacturing of print and toner cartridges. You’re conserving natural resources and saving them for a better served purpose. And of course, you’re clearly saving energy. You recycle your empty soup can, so why not your printer cartridge. It’s easy. And at the end of the day, the price tag you can place on saving just a little piece of our environment for our future generations is indeed priceless.
We here at Coast to Coast Computer Products, Inc. welcome you to our new blog and to the idea of being a well educated and conscious consumer. Check back with us often for tips and strategies on running effective print environments, product reviews, “best of” lists, current specials and ways you can save yourself time, money and a little piece of our environment at the same time. Thank you for joining us!
Thanks for shraing. What a pleasure to read!