Inkjet cartridges - we're aiming to cut down on plastic waste

Investing to make savings

At Swizzle and friends, we are always looking for new products to add to our range but this often involves investing in new equipment.

Although we can’t say too much yet about our latest development, it did involve buying a new printer. 

It had to meet some specific criteria in terms of what it could do but also in the way we could keep it going.

Many printers rely on cartridges being installed from time to time and it does depend on the printer as what type of inkjet cartridge you install.

In our case, we had one that took two types of cartridge - a black one and a tricolour one. Others have a cartridge for each colour.

But the problem comes when you start to use them heavily. Not only does it become costly in financial terms, but you can end up with a lot of empty cartridges.

What are the options?

Of course, there are a couple of options available. You can refill them, although this can only be done for a while and you have to take care to ensure that they are not completely empty as if they dry out, refilling them isn't as effective and they may not work.  

The other option is to recycle the cartridges. According to Earth911.com, in the United States, more than 500 million inkjet cartridges are sold each year and 350 million of those end up in landfill sites. 

Recycling the cartridges is a service you can take advantage of in the UK, you just need to request an envelope, pack up your cartridges when it arrives and send them off to be recycled. For example, Epson run a programme where you can do this and there other ones available, you just need to search the internet to see what is on offer.

Taking up a new approach

But we have opted to take a different route, by investing in an Epson Eco-tank printer. They do cost a little more to buy, but then you can make savings on ink purchases. For example, according to the manufacturer, the Epson Eco Tank ET-2750 comes with the equivalent of 88 cartridges of ink, so when you think about it, that’s a lot of plastic we won’t need to use over the months. 

According to Epson’s information, we will be saving 90 per cent of our ink costs, which will be another great benefit.

So overall, we are looking forward to reduced waste and some financial savings - so it’s a win-win.

Further reading

To read more about Epson’s Eco Tank printers, click here. 

If you have Epson inkjet cartridges to recycle and you’d like to find out how to do that, click here. 

To find out more about what earth911.com has to say on the subject, click here.