Some useful information, some anecdotes, some rantings, and some inspiration
from my quest to make my family and perhaps the world around me A Little Greener Every Day

A friend of mine asked recently what she should do with her old ink jet cartridge. I can’t believe I’ve never covered this in depth before, but apparently, I haven’t.

Getting your used ink jet cartridges into the hands that can recycle them is easy. There’s no reason they should ever end up in your trash can.

First off, you can get your existing ink jet cartridges refilled. About two years ago, I tried this at a local Walgreens. It didn’t turn out too well. However, since technology improves rapidly, and the greening of everything has exploded in the past two years, perhaps I should give this another shot. There is also a chain of stores called Cartridge World that refills cartridges for you.

There are also do-it-yourself refill kits that can be bought online and in stores. I’ve never tried this so I can’t recommend any specific brands. I’ve heard it can be messy and tricky. If you’ve ever had any luck refilling your own cartridges, please tell us about it in the comments.

Okay, onto to recycling your used cartridges. Here are several easy places/organizations that accept them.

• Staples has an incentive program for customers to bring in used cartridges. You’ll get $3 in Staples Rewards (you must be a rewards member) for each cartridge you return – up to 10 per month. Plus, you’ll receive 10% back in rewards when you buy new ink or toner.
• Office Max has a similar rewards program. They accept HP, Dell, or Lexmark ink or toner cartridges (up to 10 per week) and give $3 in rewards. They have a program for higher volume recycling, too.
• Best Buy has recycling kiosks inside their front doors that you can drop used cartridges in.
• Also, when you buy new ink cartridges, they often come with postage paid bags that you can slip the old cartridges in to send away to be recycled.

There’s a lot of money to be made in recycling ink cartridges so there are many charities that accept the cartridges as donations. They recycle them and use the money. Even my church at one time had a bin where we could put used cartridges in to raise money for our preschool. Here are some places* that accept used cartridges and use the money for charitable causes.

• Recycle for Charity – Habitat for Humanity, The Christian Children’s Fun, and Helen Keller International are just a few of the organizations that benefit from this program.
• Recycling for Charities – You can pick one of their existing charities or sign up your own charity to receive funds from donated in cartridges.
• Funding Factory - Schools and other organizations can do fundraisers through funding factory by collecting in cartridges and used cell phones.

These are just a few of the many places that accept ink cartridges. With all of these options, there’s no reason ink cartridges should ever end up in a landfill, is there?

* I have no experience with any of these groups who donate funds to charities in exchange for cartridges. I do not endorse any of these organizations.

Image: Justin Baeder