Working from home has increased the number of people printing in their home office. As time has gone on, the printer ink has run out and people are wondering what to do with the empty cartridges. We’re more aware than ever of what we throw away in our homes, and putting empty printer and toner cartridges in the bin seems like such a waste. But you do still need to print, even in this digital age.  So what do you do with those empty cartridges? Don’t worry, we’re here to help! We’ll show you how to recycle printer ink cartridges, so you can do your bit for the environment.

At home? Unfortunately not. Printer ink cartridges are classed as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and cannot be recycled or disposed of at home. These kinds of products contain a variety of complex materials which need to be correctly managed. Specialist facilities and technologies need to be used to ensure that the materials are handled safely and recycled appropriately.

While it’s an inconvenience that printer ink cartridges can’t be recycled at home, you can drop them at recycling points. At Ryman, we have ink and toner cartridge recycling points in all of our stores!

As we mentioned earlier, in order to recycle your printer ink cartridges, you need to find a drop off point. Your local Ryman store will have one, use our store locator to see where yours is. Be sure to let a member of staff know you’re recycling printer ink cartridges. If you come in to recycle ink cartridges and purchase new ones on the same day, you can get a 50p discount per cartridge*. Save the environment, and save yourself some money! We take all printer and toner cartridges for recycling, even if they weren't purchased in our store.

*Maximum of 5 cartridges per transaction.

Recycling your ink cartridges isn’t the only way you can make your printing habits more eco-friendly. Why not opt for recycled printer paper like the Xerox Recycled A4 Paper (£6.99)? It’s an easy switch and the quality is excellent. Plus, the recycled paper it’s made from, was de-inked without bleaching! 

It’s important to be selective about when you print too. Really think about whether you need to print a document. If you do, and you need to print off multiple pages, see if your printer has a ‘collate’ option to print on both sides of the paper.

You can even do something as simple as unplug your printer when you’re not using it. Small acts make a difference too!

If you want to go the extra mile you could invest in an eco-friendly printer such as the Epson EcoTank ET-2750 (£259.99). This eco-friendly printer uses refills and you could go three years without having to buy replacement ink for it. That’ll save you a lot of money and waste. You can find all of our printers here.

Recycling your printer ink cartridges is easy with Ryman, make sure you save your cartridges and recycle them with us! If you’d like to find out more about what we are doing for the environment, you can find the information here. 

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