ADVERTORIAL
Established in 2006, Cartridges Direct has developed into Australia’s leading and most trusted source of genuine printer, copier, and fax cartridges in Australia.
Whether it’s a home printer or an office copier, Cartridges Direct can provide customers with just about any of their cartridge requirements.
Despite their success in the market, owner Simon Williams is well aware that the ubiquity of printer ink cartridges in today’s world poses us with a difficult environmental challenge; and is dedicated to educating those who purchase his printer cartridges on how to lessen the environmental impact.
According to Mr Williams, when thrown out in the bin, printer cartridges end up in landfills and can take up to 1000 years to decompose due to a complex mix of polymers that are used in the manufacturing process.
To make matters worse, there is the potential for these ink cartridges to leak harmful toxins into the ground over time, if they end up as landfill.
To reverse this trend and divert the flow of used ink cartridges away from our landfills, Cartridges Direct has a strong responsibility in advocating that Australians choose to recycle their used printer cartridges instead of throwing them away.
Cartridges Direct encourages Australians to recycle their used printer ink cartridges with Cartridges 4 Planet Ark, an innovative recycling program that has so far diverted over 23 million printer ink cartridges from landfills.
With collection boxes across the country, Cartridges 4 Planet Ark works closely with major printer ink manufacturers to collect and return cartridges for recycling.
Used cartridges in Planet Ark collection boxes are gathered and sent to Close the Loop, a Melbourne based waste solutions company that facilitates the recycling and resource recovery process.
Unlike traditional recyclable materials such as glass, plastic and paper, printer ink cartridges require specialised processes to manually sort and pull apart the materials before they can be broken down into their separate components.
This allows for the recovery of reusable elements such as toner powder, metals, ink and plastics, which can then be channeled back to the manufacturer to be repurposed into new products.
The Australian-made contraption dubbed the “Green Machine” reduces the cartridges into smaller particles and separates them into potentially valuable or hazardous material with the ultimate aim of recovering as much usable raw material as possible that will be sent back to the original equipment manufacturer.
The program has been a success so far as Australians have come together to divert over 10,000 tonnes of cartridges from landfills, prevented over 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasses from being released into the atmosphere, as well achieved significant water, energy and resource savings.
As one of Australia’s leading providers of genuine printer and toner cartridges, Cartridges Direct hopes that more businesses and households get behind the great work that Planet Ark has been spearheading and to always make a conscious choice to recycle their used cartridges.
The next time you replace your printer ink cartridges, spare a thought for the environment and opt to find a printer cartridge recycling program near you instead of binning it.
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