When Being Green, Consider Your Printer's Black Ink

Jan. 27, 2011 - PRLog -- CHERRY HILL, N.J. – If you want to go green, be sure not to overlook your computer’s printer.

That toner cartridge sitting inside took four quarts of oil to manufacture, and unless you recycle it when it’s empty, that’s four quarts of oil going into a landfill, points out Marty Long, whose mission, along with his wife Thea, is to help area offices and other printer users conserve natural resources, while conserving cash.

As owners of Cartridge World of Cherry Hill – which this year celebrates its fifth anniversary – the Longs love to edify people on the benefits of remanufactured laser printer cartridges. In the remanufacturing process, empty cartridges are completely disassembled, cleaned, all internal parts replaced, then reassembled and filled with the specific toner for the cartridge type. The cartridge is then tested and packaged for sale to the consumer, at a fraction of the cost of a new cartridge.

“Our cartridges are remanufactured in the United States, unlike name brand OEM cartridges that are all manufactured overseas. In fact, our manufacturers produce over three million cartridges a month. We are not someone sitting in a basement squirting ink into a cartridge,” says Long, a burly, affable sort whose speech retains some of the twang from his native Texas. “So not only are you helping protect the future of the environment, you’re buying American products, saving substantial money and not sacrificing quality.”

Aside from remanufactured toner cartridges, Cartridge World also sells remanufactured ink cartridges, a process that actually requires a skilled technician to do successfully. That’s because each inkjet nozzle is microscopic – about one-third the circumference of a human hair – so failure to clean the cartridge properly will result in diminished print quality…or no printing at all.

Re-using resources is a noble endeavor, but keeping money in the company’s coffers is at least as important to most businesses. Long says printer users can do that simply by managing their supplies better.

“When your printer’s toner light or notification comes on, there may still be as much as one-third of the ink or toner left. You’d be surprised how many cartridges we take back that still have useful life,” Long notes. “You should think of the light simply as a warning to have a back-up cartridge handy.”

Cartridge World is a 22-year-old chain that began in Australia and now has 1,700 franchises worldwide. In 2007, Cartridge World of Cherry Hill was named the chain’s Fastest Growing Store in New Jersey, out of 45 locations. In August of 2008 they became the number one store in New Jersey for sales and customer satisfaction. In 2009 they ended the year in the top 20 percent of all stores in the U.S. For more information, call 856-751-0900 or go to www.cartridgeworld.com/usa/usa652

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