Lexmark Wins Patent Inkjet Cartridge

Lexmark, one of the largest makers of laser printers, is a believer in the "give away the razors, but charge them for the blades" tactic, counting on the fact that consumers routinely underestimate "life cyle costs" for products like printers. In other words, if you low-ball your customers on the price for the printer, you can gouge them later for ink.

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Statistics | Facts HP Inkjet Printer Cartridge

HP was the first company to invent a patented technology to enable the use of recycled plastics in new HP inkjet cartridges. This year, HP will produce more than 4 million inkjet cartridges using recycling plastic from used HP cartridges.

Since 1992, HP has reduced the average number of parts used in monochrome HP Laserjet print cartridges by 25 per cent and reduced the number of plastic resin types by 51 per cent. Since HP began recycling Laserjet cartridges in 1991 and inkjet cartridges in 1997, millions of pounds of material have been recycled.

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Staples Recycles Inkjet Cartridges for Schools

Staples the Office Superstore, LLC, an affiliate of Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS), the world's largest office products company, along with Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin, today launched a nationwide cartridge recycling competition. The Staples $25,000 Cartridge Chase challenges students to form teams and collect empty ink and toner cartridges through March 1, 2006. The teams will receive $3.00 for each eligible cartridge recycled and the team that collects the most empty cartridges wins $25,000 on Earth Day 2006.

Recycling ink and toner cartridges is an important way for people to help protect the planet. Eighty percent of inkjet cartridges are thrown in the trash, with the expectation that each cartridge will take 1,000 years to decompose. Staples' environmental commitment extends to the procurement and promotion of recycled content products, chain-wide recycling initiatives such as Recycle for Education, energy conservation initiatives and renewable power procurement and education initiatives for customers and associates. The Staples $25,000 Cartridge Chase is another initiative the company hopes will increase recycling awareness.

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Inkjet Printer Cartridge Pricing

Consumer Reports tested hundreds of off-brand printer cartridges to see if they can compete with the higher-priced name-brand cartridges. You may be surprised, but the off-brands won't save you as much as you might think.

With a set of black and color cartridges from Canon, Epson or HP costing around $50-70, many consumers go for the off-brand thinking it will save big money. Consumer Reports bought more than 500 cartridges to see how the less expensive inks compare to the kind you get from the big three -- Epson, Cannon and HP

"We tested a wide variety of off-brand inks from many different sources, including office depot, staples, some online retailers, as well as specialty ink stores," said Eileen McCooey of Consumer Reports. In general, we found that the name-brand cartridges did the best. The photo quality was excellent, and they faded less than the alternative brands," said McCooey. "They usually produce fewer photos, so you won't save much money, if any. In fact, sometimes the photos can cost you more using the off-brand ink."

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Staples Offers Coupon for Recycled Printer Cartridges

Office supplies giant Staples this week staked a claim as the first national retailer to offer customers a $3 off coupon for each used ink or toner cartridge returned at any of Staples 1,200 stores nationwide. The coupon can be used for any Staples purchase in store, on Staples.com or by catalog.

"This cartridge recycling offer underscores Staples' commitment to be the leading destination for printing supplies," said Dave Perron, executive vice president of merchandising and supply chain at Staples. "Staples now makes it easy for customers to save even more when they recycle any cartridge they use for their businesses and home offices."

With more than 2,000 SKUs of ink and toner products sold in stores and online, Staples said it is the world's leading destination for ink and toner. The company said it backs up its ink and toner products with an in-stock and low price guarantee: If Staples is ever out of stock of a cartridge in a store, customers can get it delivered with free delivery and $10 off or buy a compatible or remanufactured cartridge with $10 off. Staples also offers a 110 percent price-match guarantee, and the retailer's own brand cartridges are priced at 10-15 percent below name-brand prices.

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HP Deskjet 3940 Color Inkjet Printer Review

Bought directly from Hewlett-Packard, the HP Deskjet 3940 Color Inkjet Printer and two ink cartridges cost $49.99. If you purchase a set of those cartridges separately, and eventually, you will, they will run you $29.99. That means the printer itself only costs about $20. How good a printer do you get for $20? A surprisingly good one, ideal for extremely light-duty use such as printing a few pages of homework a few times a week plus the occasional photo.


The HP Deskjet 3940 offers surprisingly good-looking output for a low-price printer. But its performance is slower than its closest competitors, particularly for photos, and the cartridges hold relatively little ink, making it suitable for only the lightest of light-duty printing needs.

Pros : Low price. Small size. Output quality is at the high end of good across the board. Cons : Although performance is acceptable, it's slower than the closest competition. Small-capacity ink cartridges.

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Recycling Epson Cartridges - FAQ

Q: Does inkCanada recycle Epson cartridges ?

A: At this point inkCanada does not recycle empty epson cartridges.