How to Clean Printer Ink And Toner Off of Your Hands and Fabrics

Getting the stain is easy — to clean printer ink and toner off of your hands and clothes isn’t.
You’d hardly escape getting stained when changing your toner cartridge or printer ink; stains may also follow a paper jam.

Don’t let the mess weigh you down. Use the guide here.

First, take precaution.

Test a small (preferably invisible) part of your clothing to figure out if the chemical you plan to use would solve your problem or worsen it.

Check your clothing tag for any care guides before attempting to remove ink or toner stains.

If your clothing tag forbids you using bleach — for set-in stains only — use a pretreatment solution consisting of two tablespoons of liquid detergent, three tablespoons of white vinegar, and one quart (i.e., one liter) of warm water.

Let’s explore step by step how to clean printer ink off of your hands and fabrics — starting with your fabrics. Read on.

Clean Fresh Ink Stains Off of Clothes and Fabrics

Use a damp towel or sponge: Using a clean, damp towel, dab the stained part of the garment until you completely lift the ink off of the area. You may use a sponge in place of a towel.

Air dry: Allow the stain to air dry.

Hairspray or alcohol: Dab the stain with alcohol or spray it with hairspray.

Paper towels: Insert your stained garment between two paper towels.

Blot the stain out: Force the stain out into one of the paper towel by blotting the back side of the fabric.

Repeatedly blot the stains out: Lift off the stain by repeatedly pressing the affected area of the garment into the clean segments of the paper towel. Make sure you are pressing and moving the paper towel to ensure the stains do not retransfer into the cloth. Use new paper towels if you see a need for them. Continue this process until you completely remove the stains.

Clean OldInk Stains Off of Clothes and Fabrics

Cleaning off printer ink stains that have settled into your garment requires a bit more rigor. Here’s the process:

Apply detergent: Use a small amount of liquid laundry detergent on the affected area.

Scrub: Scrub the stained spot with a toothbrush; this should start lifting the stain.

Use bleach (if appropriate for your garment): If the scrubbing didn’t remove the stain, mix one part water with one part bleach, dip the toothbrush in the solution and softly brush the stain off.

Wash the cloth: Wash the cloth immediately. Your garment must NOT dry between scrubbing and washing it — the loosened ink stain would set back into your fabric if dried.

Dry the garment: Dry the garment flat or hanged. DON’T use a dryer. Using a dryer would set-in any remaining ink residues into the fabric. Repeat this process (1 to 5) if you find any ink residues after your garment dries.

Clean Toner Stains Off of Clothes and Fabrics

Hand vacuum: First off, vacuum the area affected by the toner stain, and then take off your clothing.

Shake: Once taken off, shake the garment vigorously to remove the remaining toner stain.

Brush: Use a soft bristled brush to clean off the stains gently. DON’T rub the stain as doing so forces the toner powder deeper into the fabric.

Brush alternative: You may use a dry piece of cloth, like a towel, instead of a bristled brush. Use the dry cloth in a brushing motion — make sure it’s a piece of cloth that you don’t mind soiling.

Using rubbing alcohol: Blot the toner stain with an absorbent cloth you’ve dampened with rubbing alcohol.

Use hairspray: Spray the affected area with hairspray and blot BOTH sides of the fabric with the towel, then wash the garment in a washing machine using COLD water. Stains could become permanent if heat fuses the toner dust, so make sure you’ve completely removed the stain before exposing your cloth to a dryer.

Clean Printer Ink Off of Your Hands

About all printer ink or toner stain removers have their downsides — especially if the stain is on your skin.

I have provided a list of eight ways to clean ink or toner stains from your hands, and possible health hazards that follow each of these options.

Bleach: Mix 1 part of bleach with ten parts of water. Rub the affected areas with the solution until the stain is wiped off. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly using soap and water after removing the stains. Neutralize the smell of the bleach by squeezing orange or lemon. Bleach is caustic. Chlorine is an ingredient in bleach; it can cause burn and irritations of the eye, nose, and throat; it can also cause pigment loss. Bleach can also cause vomiting and nausea.

Nail polish remover: This can remove printer ink or toner stains from your hands. However, you want to be careful with using a nail polish remover on anything apart from your skin as it’s capable of removing your furniture’s finish. Acetone, better known by the name ‘nail polish remover,’ can cause dizziness, irritation of the eyes, skin, and throat, and headaches if exposed to it too often for too long.

Rubbing alcohol: After using rubbing alcohol to get the toner or in off of your hands, apply some lotion to avoid drying out your skin. Make sure you keep the liquid away from your nose and do not ingest it.Isopropyl alcohol — the scientific name of rubbing alcohol — when ingested or inhaled causes side effects like dizziness, headaches, nausea, flushing, vomiting, and in some extreme cases may cause coma.

Hairspray: Apply hairspray on the stained area, leave for some time to dissolve the ink or toner. And then Wash it off. Swallowing a small amount of hairspray, unintentionally, isn’t dangerous — but deliberate swallowing of the substance can cause harm. The alcohol content of hairspray, according to Poison.org, is the only dangerous ingredient it has.

Glass Cleaner: Most homes and offices have some glass cleaner lying somewhere. Use this option to remove fresh stains. Spray the glass cleaner on the affected parts of your hands and wipe them with a paper towel BEFORE the ink dries out. Make sure that you do not breathe in or swallow the glass cleaner. This liquid, which contains ammonia (and other potentially toxic substances like ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, and methanol), can irritate the eye, lungs, and throat, and can damage the airways and mucous membrane.

Baby Oil: Baby oil coagulates the ink or toner stains quickly, especially when it’s still fresh. Overall, this is the safest option on this list.

Tea Tree Oil: Apply a few drops on a piece of clean dry cloth, and then scrub off the stain. To clean your skin thoroughly, repeat the process while using a fingernail brush to reach the crevices of your skin. Repeat until you’ve completely cleaned off the all the ink. Although Tea Tree Oil won’t harm you, it has a strong odor you might not like, so use it in a well-ventilated place. Don’t ingest tea tree oil as it might have serious side effects like unsteadiness, rash, and in extreme cases coma. Use other solutions on this list if you have acne, as tea tree oil may cause skin dryness, burning, stinging, and redness. Amazon and other retail outlets sell the product.

Hand Cleaner Solutions: Solutions like Goop and Gojo. These cleaners are for removing grease but can be used to remove ink and toner stains as well.

Conclusion

When dealing with ink or toner stains on your fabrics make sure to check clothing tags for care instructions — using bleach or rubbing alcohol may be inappropriate for some garments. Remember to test a small, invisible area of your cloth to determine if using a particular chemical would be appropriate or not.

Whether your fabric allows bleach or not, this article covers your need. Where using bleach is inappropriate, use the pretreatment solution described in the first few paragraphs of this article.

Applying chemicals to your skin should be done with utmost care. If you’d experience irritations with certain chemicals, try out other options on the list when removing stains from your hand.

It’s usually best to clean off ink or toner stains from your skin as quickly as possible; for example, using baby oil is deemed completely harmless. You have eight options from the list above, choose a handy option if you ever need to clean an ink or toner stain off of your skin.

We offer the best market rate. If you have new toner to sell, we can give you a quote in an hour; we’ll pay you here — online — and even cover shipping. Let’s talk.

5 Ways Toner Optimizer Helps You Work Smarter

“Every silver lining’s got a touch of grey.” – Unknown

Thank Goodness! We can now use the Toner Optimizer to make our printing smart. Toners have come a long way. Copiers have since graduated from being an encumbering equipment that required high-level technical training to operate. Toners are no longer feared for their likelihood to cause health problems or even explode without warning.

Printing now happens at the push of a button. If the printers have any problems, they show us error codes to indicate the exact problem, and we’d just fix it.

There’s finally a silver lining! We can now print in a breeze — anyone, anytime, anywhere. Wow! Things are looking up.

Or are they?

OK, maybe indeed things are looking good, but there’s a touch of grey in this silver lining. If you have a business and use toner printer, then you may already be worried:

Your printer BLEEDS more toner than it needs and this is costing you money,

Printing resources are hard to account for,

You are contributing to the landfill and environmental problems that cartridges are causing (without any hope of reducing your carbon footprint),

Printer troubleshooting and printing issues waste a significant amount of time, energy, and money,

Your WAN is getting overloaded by your network of printers, and that’s causing a leak in your organization’s performance.

These concerns are genuine. The truth is that your resources are indeed leaking away, and your toners are encumbering the environment.

But there’s another silver lining!

You can STOP the leak, boost productivity, and reduce your carbon footprint. What’s more? You can do all that with just a software — a Toner Optimizer.

A while ago Xerox introduced the Toner Optimizer tool. The software helps you reduce your carbon footprint while keeping your print speed and quality at its highest; it cuts printing cost, improves toner efficiency, and improves business productivity.
Let’s examine five benefits you stand to gain from using a Toner Optimizer tool.

1. The Best Print Quality with the Least Amount of Toner

Image Credit: Pixabay

You want to reduce your printing costs; the Toner Optimizer tool does exactly that does for you. The software identifies multiple elements on a page, such as graphics, texts, colors shades, and images, using advanced algorithms. This optimizer then reduces — to the lowest level possible — the amount of toner that goes into that printing work, while enabling the highest print quality and in the shortest time possible.

The software can save you up to 35 percent of pixels on text and 18 percent of pixels on graphics.

In short, Toner Optimizer saves you money, elongates the lifespan of your toner, and improves your print quality. This point alone is a big deal. There’s, even more, benefits to using Toner Optimizer Software Read on.

2. Saves the Environment

Image Credit: Pixabay

Authority sources report that the volume of toners that go to landfills yearly would easily cover 100 standard-sized football fields. The figure is currently at 350 million toner cartridges and is growing every year by 12 percent. In less than ten years, we’d have thrown enough toner cartridges away to cover ALL the stadiums in North America

Apart from the toners themselves, other resources like aluminum, oil, and plastic go to waste. In fact, 33.6 million kilograms of aluminum, 3.5 billion liters of oil, and more than more than 126 million kg of plastic are consumed every year as a direct result of landfilling with toner cartridges.

What’s more? It takes 1,000 years for a toner cartridge disposed of off in a landfill to degrade. Without considering the carbon cost of producing the toner itself, the manufacturing process of one mono-toner cartridge (again, just the cartridge alone) releases 4.8 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is the most abundant greenhouse gas we have today.

Toner Optimizer identifies and removes excess pixels from prints, without compromising on print quality. By reducing the volume of toners you consume, you have directly cut your carbon footprint and lowered the 12 percent growth rate in toners that go to landfills yearly. You have also lessened the waste that results from toner cartridge packaging and transportation.

3. Captures Useful Data

Your Toner Optimizer grants you the opportunity to oversee your printing infrastructure. You can see insights on all directly connected USB devices. Toner Optimizer makes it possible for you to identify and capture information about your printing infrastructures, such as paper and toner usage, number of connected users, the volume of printed pages, and all job tracking details.

Gathering data helps you make management decisions, cut costs and monitor waste. You’re in a better place because you know who’s using the most resources, whether the resource use is efficient, and what kind of printers to buy or replace.

4. Productive Printer Networking

Image Credit: Flickr

If you’re a large organization and have offices in multiple geographic locations, effective printer networking can be a hassle. Of course, a Toner Optimizer would be helpful if your company wants to manage it’s printing across the whole building — not across geographic locations.

Now, what’s to happen if your company decides to centralize its printing and have it managed over its wide area network (WAN)?

What would you do?

First thing would be to optimize the organization’s WAN.

Since you’ve decided to network all the printers over that WAN, your printer network would contribute a lot of traffic to your WAN. For this reason, you want to make your printing priority.

Applying the insights you gathered from your Toner Optimizer can help you manage, and even eliminate, wide area traffic from your printing. As an effect, optimizing your printing traffic supports your organization’s wide area network (WAN) to become efficient as a whole.

Having a centralized print management software dramatically reduces printer support issues. As an example, if you’re experiencing a slow network when you need to update a printer driver, the printer servers may be unreachable or even crash.

The problem described above can be hard to detect and deal with individually — a print management software would be ideal for the situation. Your Toner Optimizer furnishes helpful troubleshooting tools, centralizes control and manages individual printer queues, and helps maintain complex networking needs without hassle.

5. Integrates Well with Your Existing Workflow

The Toner Optimizer is highly responsive. With its self-configuration and self-discovery abilities, a Toner Optimizer tool blends effortlessly into any print environment. You can adjust them to fit your specific needs and configure them to work with a particular group of users.

Toner Optimizer software runs in the background. Other software-enabled tools that need to work can work simultaneously with the optimizer. The print management software won’t interrupt existing business process or workflows.

A good Toner Optimizer should be very flexible. It should fit into the company’s goals effortlessly — the organization should be better at acquiring, shrinking, growing, cutting, and evolving in any way it deems fit or needs, without struggle or stress from the software.

The goal of the optimizer tool is to help businesses across the globe simplify, secure, automate, integrate, and optimize their everyday tasks. It also helps them use their resources more efficiently and responsibly.

Image Credit: Preton

Conclusion

The silver lining in the environmental and financial burden foisted upon us by the toner cartridge industry is the Toner Optimizer tool. For now, we can’t place a finger on any “touch of grey” resulting from this software, and it probably doesn’t have one — yet.
For now, be assured that the Toner Optimizer lays most (if not all) of your worries to rest. If you haven’t started using the software already, it’s one to try. Remember that vendors may call it by other names like Pixel Optimizer, even Xerox calls their Xerox Assessment Tools or Print Awareness Tool.

Toner and NFL: Why Paper Still Dominates the Game

What makes an NFL genius like Tom Brady? The New England Patriots quarterback is probably the nation’s best. 39-Year-Old Brady is also crowned the best signal caller in the league.

Apart from his outstanding records of success, Tom Terrific has the uncanny ability to remain mentally stable. The quarterback keeps his focus on the game even with his team down by three points in the last five minutes of gameplay.

Brady’s mental strength has paid off. He’s led his team to victory consistently. In the last one year to August 2017, Brady has bagged accolades like,

1. The most passing yards in a Super Bowl, 466.

2. Played the most number of Super Bowls, seven.

3. Super Bowls won, five.

4. The highest number of completed passes in a Super Bowl game, 43.

5. The most career passing yards in a Super Bowl, 2,071.

6. The highest number of pass attempts in a Super Bowl game, 62.

7. The most career passes attempted in the Super Bowl, 309.

8. The highest number of Super Bowl touchdowns in a career, 16.

In short, Brady commands success at will. What’s the quarterback’s victories to do with toners and papers?

Quarterbacks, Toners, and Papers

Image Credit: Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports

Sitting on Tom Terrific’s wrists in every game is his playbook. That’s where he calls the signals from. That cheat sheet is printed with toner on paper.

That playbook is used for every game. Everytime. And, nope, Tom Brady isn’t the only quarterback using cheat sheets.

Defensive schemes have grown complex and quarterbacks have befriended wristband playbooks to stay competitive. Approaching the end of his rookie season on the New York Jets team, Mark Sanchez, now quarterback for the Chicago Bears, started using wrist-worn cheat sheets. Sanchez has since played for the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.

You’d find cheat sheets on the wrists of most quarterbacks (even entire teams!). Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Alex Smith who played for the San Francisco 49ers and now plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. Tim Tebow who played for the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets.

Eli Manning stopped using cheat sheets in 2009. Before the New York Giants quarterback started memorizing his signal calls, he’d depended on playbooks.

According to NJ.com, Kurt Warner commented on his experience with using a wrist-worn playbook. Warner who’s played for the New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals, and St. Louis Rams said,

“I finally used it in Arizona. You’d love to have somebody call the play to you (via the helmet radio), so you get to hear it one time. And then you get to call it a second time, so it gets to process in your mind twice.”

Tom Brady and other quarterbacks happen to be benefiting from a half-century old culture of wearing cheat sheets on wristbands. Quarterbacks started wearing playbook wristbands in 1965.

How Papers Got into the Game

Baltimore Colts quarterback Tom Matte’s cheat sheet from 1965, displayed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Image Credit: NJ.com

The 1965 Baltimore Colts quarterbacks, Johnny Unitas (who was the starter) and Gary Cuozzo (the backup), had sustained season-ending injuries. The only hope left for the team was Tom Matte.

A loving wife, an index card, and a magic marker in the kitchen table of a suburban Baltimore home were the humble beginnings of the playbook wristband some 52 years ago.

Tom had been in Baltimore Colts since 1961 and was familiar with their play. The team’s offensive coordinator Don McCafferty came up with the idea of the playbook to make things easy for Matte. The cheat sheet worked out well.

McCafferty’s wife, Judy, helped with writing a crude version of the cheat sheet. She wrote the playbooks for the final two games of the 1965 season, and then the playoff between the Colts and the Green Bay Packers.

Matte is now 78 years old. Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio has the former quarterback’s original cheat sheet wristband on their display. Tom is amazed at how the playbook has gained wide acceptance. He says “I cheated my way into the Hall of Fame.”

Habits and Paper-centric Departments

Gartner’s Vice President of Research, Ken Weilerstein, says that printing initially surged with an increase in online content. According to Mr. Weilerstein, printing volumes rose in response to the abundance of content online.

Let’s take a look at the stats here. Back in 2015 – that’s a long time considering the growth speed of online content – every minute (i.e., every 60 seconds),

204 million emails are sent out,
1,400 blog posts go live (that’s over 2 million articles every day),
Facebook gets 2.46 million posts,
Twitter welcomes 277,000 tweets,
Yelp 26,380 reviews and the list goes on.

According to Hosting Facts, we have 1.24 billion websites as of August 2017. Since British physicist Tim Berners-Lee published the first website in 1991, we’ve had a mind-blowing 124 billion percentage growth in websites!

I can’t think of any other technology that’s grown as fast as the internet. And it’s still growing.

People feel more comfortable reading lengthy texts on paper than on screens. So they print. The growing volume of online content encourages more printing.

Infotrends released a study in January 2016. In the study, 60 percent of printing done in companies of any size were essential – 40 percent were optional. Millennials (18 to 29-year-olds), counter-intuitively, didn’t show any significant drop in their printing habits.

NFL teams hire an average of 3,739 people, including office staff. The Infotrends studies say human resources, accounting, and legal are the most paper-centric departments. Activities that happen regularly like invoicing, printing notes and onboarding consume paper.

In the words of Weilerstein, “It is easier to read long documents on paper than on-screen. Paper is universally accepted as valid for contracts and other legal documents, and the signatures are familiar and accepted to a greater degree than any digital signature.”

IDC’s Keith Kmetz, who serves as the organization’s program vice president for imaging, printing and document solutions shares Ken Weilerstein’s views. Keith pointed out that many companies, including some NFL teams, have initiated a “paperless light” concept.

Almost all internal processes are entirely paperless, in a “paperless light” concept. However, integrating external processes into that internal system would involve some printing and scanning.

To Wrap it Up

Papers will dominate the game for the foreseeable future. Tom Matte’s legacy won’t be digitized anytime soon. The NFL and teams in the NFL, just like other large organizations in the Infotrends studies, have accounting, legal, and other paper-centric activities that’s not about to go obsolete.

Papers will dominate this game because they help ensure victory. And, hey, who doesn’t like winning?

Help Me! My Toner Cartridge Is Leaking

Things go wrong every once a while — I haven’t met anyone who can control all the events in his life. Resilience, it seems, is all that matters in the end. This philosophy applies to leaking toner cartridges as well.

If you use refilled toner, then your chances of experiencing a toner leak are significantly higher than if you use OEMs or compatible toners. Of course, OEM and compatible toners are not immune to leaks; refilled toners just have a higher probability of leaking.

This guide provides you with step-by-step processes for cleaning up toner leaks. If you do not have basic printer maintenance skills or if opening up your printer would void your warranty, then you should contact the manufacturer or hire a professional to help. Now, let’s dive in.

How to Clean Up a Toner Cartridge Leak

Image Credit: HP

If your toner cartridge is leaking, then you should take the steps outlined below to cleaning up the plastic-dust without causing further damage to your cartridge, health, or furniture. Read on.

What NOT to do: Don’t use the regular vacuum cleaner! The toner is plastic dust, and you shouldn’t inhale it. Using a vacuum cleaning blows toner particles into the air, causing issues beyond the toner dust itself.

Well, you may ignore that warning if your printer has a specially designed vacuum for cleaning toner particles, called ESD (Electrostatic Discharge-safe) toner vacuum. The EDS vacuum has HEPA (i.e., High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filter that effectively cleans up toner spills. However, you don’t need any special vacuum cleaners if you don’t have one.

Toner Vacuum. Image Credit: Ebay

To clean up the toner leak, get these materials ready:

Latex gloves,
Paper towel,
Non-surgical face mask,
Trash bag,
Clear plastic, and
Compressed air sprayer

I’ve divided this cleaning process into two sections. First, clean the machine and then the spill site.

How to clean your machine:

1. Protect Yourself: Inhaling toner dust or having it on your skin isn’t healthy. Toner particles are extremely fine plastic powder and breathing them in can cause you serious health issues.

If you already had contact with the toner dust, clean it off your skin first. Take care of your skin first before cleaning other surfaces. You may use cold water to remove toner from your skin or hasten the removal process by using an abrasive cleaner.

Make sure that you have your face mask and latex gloves on before tacking the cleaning task. Inhaling toner dust can cause nausea, dizziness, headaches, irritations in your throat, and even lung problems (just as if you’re a cigarette smoker).

2. Allow Machine to Cool and Unplug from Electrical Contacts: If you’d turned the machine on before noticing the leak, turn it off and leave it to cool for, at least, one hour. Letting your printer cool off is essential because heated components of the copier can cause burns if you don’t allow to cool before attempting to clean it.

Make sure that you unplug your devices from electricity before you start your cleaning work. Ensure you’ve turned off the machine, unplugged power cords from AC power sockets, disconnected all cables, and stayed away from any nearby electrical contacts.

3. Bring Out Your Toner Cartridge: Open your copier’s front cover panel, using a paper towel underneath, pull your toner cartridge out. If your printer’s toner cartridge is assembled inside of a drum unit, pull out the drum unit from your printer. Make sure you don’t tilt the cartridge unduly not to worsen the toner spill.

Image Credit: Ink Technologies (YouTube)

Now, put aside the drum unit you pulled out. Avoid interfering with that drum unit.

4. Don’t Scatter Toner Further: To stop toner dust from scattering all over the place, put some clear plastic down to use as a base for your machine. Remove spilled toner powder form the copier, using a paper towel, and put them into a trash bag.

During this cleaning session, do not use water or any liquid solutions to prevent any likely damages they may cause to printer components. Liquids may also cause your toner powder to stick.

5. Finish Up Your Cleaning:

Now, if you have an EDS vacuum, it’ll find use at this stage. You can use compressed air to remove whatever toner dust remains on the copier. Make sure to give four inches of space between your vacuum cleaner and machine. Vacuum your cartridges as well.

6. Reinstall Your Copier: Now, go ahead and reinstall your machine, connect your printer cables, plug it to power, and power it on.

If your toner cartridge leak is excessive and you suspect that it may have already affected other parts of your printer, that would be a lot more work than you can handle. You may endanger your health if you take on the task of cleaning your machine by yourself. It’s best that you call a qualified copier servicing professional.

How to clean a toner spill site:

Toner spill site. Image credit: Flickr

After cleaning your printer, you may want to clean up the spill site. Use these tips:

– Scoop up toner deposits if they are large, and put it in a trash bag and seal it. Make sure to check what your local regulations allow, if you may dispose of the toner powder in your public waste disposal system.

– Wet a paper towel with lukewarm water and wipe down the spill site’s surface.

– Wipe down toner from your carpet by dabbing it with a dampened clean towel and dry cleaning fluid. Do not use water. Using water would likely stain the carpet permanently. If you can’t use dry cleaning fluid, use a toner vacuum.

– In case you find any remaining toner on the floor or other surfaces, you can use a toner vacuum to vacuum them all up. It’s imperative that you use ONLY toner vacuum and not a different type of vacuum cleaner. The filters of toner vacuum cleaners can pick up toner dust without dispersing them through the air.

Reduce the Leak and Salvage the Cartridge

It’s best to call your manufacturer or a trained technician to help you determine if your toner leak can be reduced or fixed. If the leak is from a toner cartridge that’s still full, then you may be reluctant to change or buy a replacement so soon.

Checking with your manufacturer or maintenance professional could help you determine if buying a new cartridge is the smart option. However, more often than not, you’d have to replace a leaking toner cartridge with a new one.

Up Your Small Business Game: Why You Need to Recycle Used Toner and Sell Unused Ones

There’s one thing all businesses have in common: they’re constantly looking to improve. Be it big or small, established or startup, owners and business leaders have an ever-present ear to the ground on how to make their company better. But did you know what you do with your old and new toners can be apart of that?

From health tips to increasing the company budget, your toner is the key!

Used Toners

The Healthier Choice

Refilling your ink cartridges has become a staple for saving money in the office but refilling your toner? Not such a great idea. Why? One word: Carcinogens.

According to the Health and Safety Office of Portsmouth, toner powder has a pretty bad rep when it comes to our health. Classified as a “nuisance substance”, it can lead to eye irritation, headache, and itchy skin. Prolonged exposure can lead to more severe reactions. Long story short, leave refilling toners to the experts.

Get The Most Out Of Your Toner

Before you toss yet another toner cartridge in the dustbin, make sure you’ve gotten your money’s worth. There are a couple tricks you can do to make sure your toner is completely out:

Shake your toner cartridge to loosen the dust- A lot of the time the powder just needs to be stirred up again.
If the toner light appears, try putting electrical tape over the sensory hole on the non-gear part of the cartridge- A lot of printers will be fooled into thinking there’s more toner and keep printing.
Clean the opening of the toner with rubbing alcohol

For a more in-depth look at how to get the most out of your toner and other printing tips, click here and here.

Recycling

With the idea of recycling and reducing the amount of carbon footprints on the rise, it’s easy and smart for businesses to do their part and get involved. One of the best ways to do so is to safely recycle a piece of equipment that can cause some serious environmental harm: your toner cartridge.

Did you know your cartridge can take over a hundred years to decompose? Not to mention the petroleum we’re leaking back into the ground.

So what can you do about it?

Two things actually. While it’s not as simple as tossing the empty cartridge into the nearest recycle bin, it’s will be rewarding to know you’re doing your part to save our Earth.

The first thing you can do is check to see if your toner type can be resold to companies that refill them and resell them at a cheaper rate. Toner cartridges have the capacity to be used over and over again before they show any sign of wear and tear and it will save them a needless trip to the landfill.

The other thing you can do is recycle it properly. As mentioned before they can’t be taken by your regular recycle company because they require special attention. However, office supply stores such as Staples or OfficeMax usually have a toner recycle program and can take them off your hands when you’re done with them.

Unused Toners

Remember when we mentioned we have a way for you to bring in some extra revenue for your company? Well, we weren’t joking. In fact, you most likely have your source of income sitting on a shelf right now.

Toner Buyback Program

At Toner Connect, we offer to buy back your unused toners and not only free up some storage space but also get cash in your pockets. So how does it work? Easy.

The 411

Toner Connect has a fast and simple way to get rid of your unwanted cartridges and it involves you earning money. There are certain qualifications your cartridge needs to meet in order to be considered for buyback. They are:

Undamaged and unopened
From the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
The toner has not reached 3 years past its expiration date.

For the full explanation of how our buyback program works, check out our post here. When you’re ready to find out if your cartridge qualifies, simply fill out our form and we will get back to you with the rate we can offer.

The only thing easier would be to print your own money which by the way is a federal crime so we don’t recommend it.

Starting a small business is definitely no easy feat. From image development to becoming profitable to possibly joining a “What have I gotten myself into?” support group on Facebook, we at Toner Connect understand. We’ve been there. We are there. And we want to see you succeed.

If you have any questions or concerns, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us here or visit us at TonerConnect.net.

The EPA And You: How To Print The Green Way

Fathered by the United States’ 37th president Richard Nixon, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was established in 1970. And to no one’s surprise, it’s purpose is to protect the health of humans and the welfare of the environment.

With the use of ink cartridges and toner cartridges on a steady rise, the EPA couldn’t help but notice the rather unpleasant result that discarded cartridges have in the landfill they’re tossed in. Intent on leaving some sort of messy legacy, cartridges from both ink and toners alike take up to hundreds of years to decompose. And for the good people at the EPA, that was no bueno.

However, thanks to modern technology and companies like Toner Connect there’s a better way to get rid of the waste without being well wasteful.

The EPA wants you….to recycle

Initially put out in April 2013, the EPA created a guideline for ways to reduce your ink usage and while you’re at it, save thousands of acres of forestland. Calling it the Electric Challenge, the EPA came up with these clever ways to save on paper and ink.

Reduce Margins
Reduce Line Spacing
Change and Reduce Font Size

Reduce Margins

When creating a word doc you have the option to set your own margins which can be extremely beneficial when it comes to saving on paper.

Reduce Line Spacing

Right along with reducing margins, tightening up line spacing can get more words on each page. Simply click on the paragraph icon and where it says “line spacing” select “single” or change your setting manually by typing in “0.9”.

Change and Reduce Font Size

Earlier this year Toner Connect divulged what four fonts will save you the most on ink and the EPA agrees. Click here to find out which made the cut. Along with font type, changing the font size to a smaller number can definitely save on space and in the long, on ink and toner as well.

Just by adhering to these four rules it was estimated in 2012 that 170,000 sheets of paper were spared from consumer consumption. In other words, 62 40-foot trees (or someone’s backyard in Oregon) were preserved.

A small victory to be sure but the EPA wasn’t done yet.

Not satisfied with merely saving life-giving trees in our Pacific Northwest, the organization assembled another list and this time it’s on how to save on ink and toner and extend the life of the cartridges we buy.

Double-sided Printing/Shrink to Fit
Reader View Printing
Fast draft/Resolution

Double-sided Printing/Shrink to Fit

One of the more common knowledge ink savers (but we can hardly expect the EPA to come up with everything), double-sided printing not only saves on paper but combining it with the “Shrink to Fit” option and you’ll save on your ink and toner as well. Double-win.

Reader View Printing

If you find yourself in need of printing a page directly from the internet, one nice way to avoid including all those annoying banners and ads is clicking on the Reader View option. If the page is readable in that mode, alongside the link you will see three and a half lines stacked. It will change the page to only display the text and images directly affiliated with the subject.

By printing from the Reader View, you can bypass all the ads you would normally see along with the page.

Fast Draft/Resolution

Finally, one last way to save on ink is to change the printer setting to Fast Draft for documents that don’t require the ink to stand out in a commercial fashion. Similarly, changing the resolution to a lower setting will help as well. Most new printers begin at 600 DPI and you generally won’t need it so high.

Now that you’re aware of how to save on ink and paper, what do you do with your cartridges when they’re empty? The EPA has an opinion on that too.

But first…

Let’s go over what you can do with your UNUSED cartridges. (Did you think I was going to say “let’s take a selfie”? Because frankly I considered it).

At Toner Connect, this is where our speciality lies and where we come into play. If you’ve ever worked in an office setting or purchased your own home printer you know that the manufacturer will send toner cartridges, and for one reason or another they sometimes end up going unused.

Before the EPA came along and reminded us it was cool to be environmentally friendly, we would have just tossed it in the trash and called it a day. But what if I told you you’d be throwing away money instead? Dumpster diving anyone? Here at Toner Connect we will buy your unused toner cartridge and give you an excellent price for it. And it couldn’t be easier!

There are a few guidelines your toner must adhere to which are as follows:

Completely sealed
From an OEM manufacturer
In the original box
Free from any tampering

To view a complete explanation of our buyback program click here and let us pay you today!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I’ve always been keen on knowing who came up with the idea of recycling. Part of me enjoys picturing a member of the EPA committee sloshing through a depressing landfill and upon spotting an old tennis racket, holding it up and shouting “hey fellows! I bet we could still use this!”

But whatever it’s origins, recycling certainly includes your empty cartridges.

Luckily you have a few options. When it comes to ink cartridges, a lot of people prefer to home fill them which would certainly save money on new ink and of course save the cartridge from a very very very slow death at the dump.

Otherwise, you can do the following:

Return it to the original manufacturer. The company will refurbish it for resale.
Recycle at an office store. Most major office suppliers will have a recycling program in place for toner and ink cartridges.

Toner Connect and the EPA want to keep our earth “green” so the next time you find yourself with an empty ink/toner cartridge, make sure it gets a second life.

4 Reasons Why Toner Buyback Programs Are Better Than Toner Recycling

If you have an unused toner cartridge, it might be tempting to just throw it away.

Though, according to the EPA, it takes up to three quarts of oil to make a single printer cartridge and the plastic that cartridges contain can take generations to decompose in a landfill.

On top of that, ink from cartridges can leak and pollute the environment.

Certainly there’s a better way.

There are definitely benefits of recycling ink cartridges, so you may be tempted to turn to toner recycling programs. But those actually have a number of setbacks if your cartridge is unused and unopened in its original packaging.

You may not be able to make as much money on them by recycling, the reuse process has its limits and many reclaim programs can’t be done completely online.

Below we’ll look in depth at these issues and explore why a toner buyback program is your best bet for unused and unopened cartridges.

It’s easy money

We live in a world that tells us there’s really no such thing as easy money. But if you have unused toner cartridges, it is a way to make some quick cash in a fast and easy manner.

Our process for selling toner cartridges really couldn’t be any easier. You simply fill out a form detailing the brand of the toner, the toner model number and the quantity.

Someone gets back to you offering what we can pay for your toner cartridges. If you accept, we pay via PayPal or company check through mail.

It really is quick cash in your pocket.

On the other hand, many of the traditional recycling programs offer more limited means of reimbursement.

For instance, Best Buy gives a $2 store coupon and 15 percent off ink purchases through the My Best Buy loyalty program. Customers are also limited to five cartridges under this offer, and only one coupon can be used for every $40 of new ink or toner.

Staples gives back $2 in Staples Rewards for each cartridge turned in, if you’ve spent a minimum of $30 on ink or toner over the last 180 days. Toner recycling is far from the easy cash of a buyback program.

There are limits to recycling toner cartridges

While there are benefits of recycling ink cartridges, reuse programs also work best for used cartridges. If a program uses closed-loop recycling, like HP’s ink cartridge program, it makes no sense for a perfectly good cartridge.

Closed-loop recycling simply means that raw materials from old cartridges are broken down to be used in new ones. A great idea for used cartridges, not so much for unopened, pristine ones.

The County of Kaua’i’s governmental website describes what happens to used cartridges the county receives: they are sent off for re-manufacture, meaning they’re disassembled, inspected, repaired, put back together, filled and inspected again.

It simply wouldn’t be logical to submit an unused cartridge to such a process.

There are limits to recycling

Reusing products makes sense most of the time, like when you’re done with a milk carton or you’re done reading a physical newspaper because you’re old school like that. But recycling itself does have some drawbacks.

Reutilizing plastic, one of the main components in an ink cartridge, isn’t the infinite process you’d think it is. That’s because plastic has fibers, like paper, which shorten each time something is recycled.

The Auckland Council states that plastic can be reused about seven to nine times before it becomes too degraded.

Granted, one of the benefits of recycling ink cartridges is that it’s much better to get those seven to nine lives out of plastic, rather than just consigning it to a long lifetime in a landfill right off the bat. But that doesn’t mean it would make sense to go reclaiming unused products willy-nilly.

Then there are political forces that get in the way of reusing products. Back in 2013 it was reported that much of U.S. plastic wasn’t actually getting recycled.

That was because China put up what’s called the “Green Fence” in an effort to reduce pollution.

It’s a policy that bans import of anything but the most highly organized and most clean bales of reusable trash. Some types of trash are banned completely.

That means recycling has to happen here, rather than shipping it to cheap labor overseas. Considering how many products are produced in China, the old system would have reusable materials sorted out of our trash overseas and rerouted right back into the manufacturing of goods.

Resin from our plastic materials is especially valuable in the manufacturing process. This meant China actually used two-thirds of the U.S.’s used plastic each year, which accounted for billions of dollars.

Yet it wasn’t a perfect situation. Anything that couldn’t be used was put in China’s trash mountains and many of the recycling processors would pollute heavily, despite being part of the reuse model.

This isn’t to shame the recycling industry. It doesn’t mean that reusing materials is senseless, and we should just ditch it as a system.

What tricky foreign affairs means is an opportunity for domestic efforts to take up the slack, creating jobs and other business opportunities. So that is one of the benefits of recycling ink cartridges.

Yet it’s more of a reason to not put stress on the sometimes-fragile recycling industry. Especially when selling gets you straight cash, and the process itself can be so easy.

It gives toner “new life”

We’re definitely proponents of recycling used toner instead of throwing it away. When it comes to new unopened toner though, it just makes more sense to sell it to a toner buyback company.

You’re not only preventing it from going through the arduous process of recycling but also allowing it to be sold to someone else who needs and will use the toner.

Chances are, they’ll even be purchasing the printer toner at less than retail price.

It’s a win-win for everyone.

Selling toner can be done online

Many toner recycling programs also require you to drop off your cartridges at a physical location.

A search through the popular cartridge recycling program database at Earth911 simply yields a list of addresses, mostly at electronics, office or toner stores. Many listings state that you should call for further information.

But with Toner Connect, you simply fill out your form detailing what you have, get your offer and approve the offer. Then you’ll receive a pre-paid shipping label through email to print.

Simply ship us your toner cartridges for free and your cash is on its way. So if you have unused toner cartridges, get selling today!

How Long Should Ink Cartridges Last?

One of the main questions people will ask when they purchase ink cartridges is how long the cartridge will last. To answer this question properly, you must first look at different aspects of the cartridge. Understanding this information will help you determine how long you should expect ink cartridges to last.

Why Does Cartridge Size Matter?

The first thing to look at is the actual size of the ink cartridge. Ink cartridges come in many different sizes.

There are even several different sizes available for one particular brand and model of printer. Larger cartridges could give you better value and last longer.

When you are looking at this information, make sure you keep an eye on the volume of the cartridge rather than the capacity

Choosing a cartridge that has a higher volume will naturally last longer than one with a lower volume.

CartridgeWorld , if your cartridge is an all-in-one model, you can expect for it to run out faster than if the colors were separate. Most of the time, when a color runs out in one of these cartridges, it will stop working altogether.

How Does your Printer Affect the Cartridge?

Your printer and how often you print could also be an indicator of how long your ink cartridge will last.

According to WiseGeek , different types of printers and print jobs require different types of ink.

Many printers are limited on the size of cartridges and only offer one solution. If this is the case, the
overall quality and performance of your printer could determine the lifespan of your cartridge.

For example, lower quality printers often have a lower capacity cartridge to go along with them. This will cause them to not last as long.

Likewise, if you print frequently, you can expect to run out of ink sooner rather than later.

The amount of printing you do on your printer is a key factor in how long your cartridge will last as is the type of documents you print.

Printing high-quality color photos will drain an ink cartridge much faster than printing black and white documents.

Surprisingly, there are actually things you can do to make your ink cartridges last longer. In fact, you can learn quite a few tips from the Frugal Living website.

When it comes to maintaining your cartridges, start by allowing the printer to clean the nozzles and print heads every time you change out a cartridge.

This will help you avoid clogs, which could affect your print quality and make it harder for an ink cartridge to function properly.

In addition to this, make sure you use your ink cartridge regularly. Avoiding use of your printer could cause some of the ink to dry up or for clogs to occur.

This could mean you will need to run the printer through its cleaning system, which will use up more of the ink.

If you are experiencing an issue with ink residue, a damp cloth can sometimes be the answer. However, you will want to check with the manufacturer’s suggestions for this issue because some cartridges may require a different type of maintenance.

For those planning to store their ink cartridges, you should make sure they are stored in a place that is dark and dry.

You will also want to take note of the expiration dates so that you make sure you use them before that time. Turning the cartridges on their side is also the best decision because it can help keep clogs from occurring.

According to ColorTonerExpert, there are several other things you can do to store your cartridges properly. Here are some of the top tips they suggest:

1.) Avoid touching the print head

2.) Keep the Tape

3.) Know the shelf-life

4.) Keep it in the package

5.) Avoid the light as well as heat

Can you Revive a “Dead” Cartridge?

When your ink cartridge runs out of ink, one of the first things you may attempt to do is shake the cartridge.

For some cartridges, this could allow you to print several more pages of print. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

This is actually a tactic that can be easily used for toner cartridges, which are filled with powder instead of regular ink.

Over time, the powder can become lodged in the cartridge and shaking it could dislodge some of it.

For other types of cartridges that use ink rather than powder, it is much less likely that you will be able to revive a cartridge by shaking it.

Sometimes, however, it is possible to print a few more pages by simply cleaning around the area where the ink is dispersed.

You can also try this trick to unclog an inkjet cartridge.

This is all information that can help you determine how long you should expect your ink cartridge to last.

The important thing to remember is that you should follow the instructions the manufacturer gives you in order to give it the longest lifespan.

In the end, following this information can allow you to get the most value from the ink cartridges you purchase.

How Do Toner Cartridges Work?

One of the interesting aspects of laser printers and copiers is the toner.
Rather than the printer applying ink, the paper actually “grabs” the toner.
The toner itself is not ink, but rather an electrically-charged powder made of plastic and pigment.

How does toner work?

The two ingredients of toner, plastic and pigment, each have a simple role in the printing process.

The pigment provides the color, while the plastic allows the pigment to stick to the paper when the plastic is heated and melts.

The melting process gives laser toner an advantage over ink, in that it binds firmly to the paper fibers, resisting smudges and bleeding.

This also provides an even, vivid tone that helps text appear sharp on paper.

Another advantage of toner is the cost. Offices usually choose laser printers because the cost of replacing the toner cartridges is less than inkjet printer cartridges, and laser printers tend to cost only slightly more than inkjet printers.

Anatomy of a toner cartridge

The design of a toner cartridge varies with different models and manufacturers, but the following components are commonly found in most toner cartridges.

Toner hopper:The small container which houses the toner

Seal:A removable strip that prevents toner from spilling before installation

Doctor blade: Helps control the precise amount of toner that is distributed to the developer

Developer:Transfers toner to the OPC drum

Waste bin:Collects residual toner wiped from the OPC drum

Wiper blade:Wipes away residual toner applied to the page

Primary charge roller (PCR):Applies a uniform negative to the OPC drum prior to laser-writing. It also erases the laser image

Organic photo-conductor (OPC) drum:holds an electrostatic image and transfers toner onto the paper

Drum shutter:protects the drum from light when outside the machine and retracts the drum into the printer

How does the cartridge work?

In most cartridges, the toner hopper, developer and drum assembly are all part of the replaceable cartridge unit.

When an image or text is being printed on paper, the printer gathers toner from the hopper with the developer.

The developer, composed of negatively-charged magnetic beads attached to a metal roller, moves through the hopper gathering toner.

The developer collects positively-charged toner particles and brushes them past the drum assembly.

The electrostatic image on the drum has a stronger negative charge than the beads on the developer, so the toner is pulled from the developer onto the drum.

Next, the drum moves over the paper. The paper has an even stronger negative charge than the drum, and pulls the toner particles off of the drum in the shape of the electrostatic image.

Next, the paper is discharged by the detac corona wire.

At this point, gravity is the only thing keeping the toner in place. In order to affix the toner, the paper needs to pass through the fuser rollers, which are heated by internal quartz tube lamps.

The heat melts the plastic in the toner particles, causing the toner to be absorbed into the paper fibers.

Although the melted plastic sticks to the paper, it does not adhere to the heated fuser rollers.

This is possible because the rollers are coated with Teflon, the same material that helps food slide out of non-stick frying pans.

Color vs. Monochrome Printing

Color toner works essentially the same way as monochrome toner, except the process is repeated for each of the toner colors.

The standard toner colors are cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow and black. The black is needed because the three primary colors (red, yellow and blue) can be combined to form any color except black.

The reason for this is black is not technically a color, but the complete absence of color.

These four toner colors, when combined at varying levels of saturation and lightness, can produce millions of different shades and hues.

This quick guided tour of toner cartridges should help provide a basic understanding of how they work.

The current technology of toner cartridges has allowed laser printers to dominate the office printing market.

In the years to come, new designs of toner cartridges promise to provide more efficient and cost-effective solutions for office and home printing.

Three Most Common Methods Used to Refill Toner Cartridges

A toner cartridge is a very important part of a printer. It is very significant to the working of a laser printer. Purchasing one can however prove very expensive.

Finding the right model may also be a daunting task. As a result, many people tend to opt for refills. One thing to note about the same is that toner cartridges are very delicate.

And there is a slight chance you might miss.

The recommendation often given is to leave the task to a trained professional. But really there is no need for that if you can as well know how to go about it?

Below are the three most common methods used to refill toner cartridges. The guide will surely help you avoid the mess.

But first, let’s start with a typical framework of a toner cartridge then look at the refill kits and later have the common practical & procedural approaches.

Most toner cartridges bear integrated compartments that serve to hold the toner, control it as well as monitor the circuitry

They also feature large drums and one or more smaller rollers. Some cartridges have additional features, but most of them bear the top and bottom body parts.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) toner cartridges are hard to refill. They are by design not supposed to be refilled by persons who are not professionals.

However, as earlier indicated, this is not impossible. Refill kits vary in sizes, types and models. Also, some are provided with toners and tools necessary for opening and cleaning.

On the other hand others are accompanied by the toner and a syringe.

It is important therefore to look for the refill kit based on the model and type of toner cartridge. It is crucial to specify for instance, if you are looking for a refill kit for a HP Laser Jet 5.

Other tools you need to try and have include: screwdriver, cleaning supplies as well as rubber gloves.

The Toner Refill Approaches

1. Full Service Method

Begin by disassembling the toner cartridge. While at it, wear rubber gloves. Each part of the body should have its own set of screws. Store the screws well after removing them.

Pull the plates of either sides of the toner cartridge straight off. Jiggle the two halves of the cartridge gently back and forth to pull them apart.

Remove the large colored drum from the now open body then pull out the smaller roller behind it. This should reveal a tinny thin strip of metal.

Remove the screws before lifting the strip of metal out with the relevant tool, often a needle-nose plier or tweezers. You should take care not to bend the metal.

At this point, the old toner should be visible in the partition under the strip. Dumb the toner out and clean using canned air or a spirit-soaked piece of cloth.

Then replace the piece of metal and the cartridge rollers in the correct order they were before disassembling. This should come after carefully cleaning all the other components.

Also, cleaning the drum properly will contribute to improved performance.

Next, remove the thin roller on the other half of the cartridge. This is such that it is much easier to dump the toner powder from the body and to clean out the compartment with the air can.

Again, this will reveal a narrow outlet next to a familiar-looking metal strip. The opening leads to a toner reservoir.

You should then be able to pour the powder into the gap using the included funnel. Feel free to make a panel funnel in case one was not included in the refill kit and use it to direct the toner powder.

Fill the reservoir until it begins to overflow. Move the nozzle from one side to another to make the toner even.

Next, clean the roller, snap it back into place, and thoroughly wipe down the surrounding area to remove any excess powder.

Finally, reassemble the body parts and end the plates. All parts should snap back into place smoothly with minimal force.

Then, clean stray toner discovered in the crevasses and reinsert back all screws. Once the toner cartridge is reassembled, ensure that the drum rotates smoothly.

2. Quick Puncture Method

Some refill kits are designed to let the user refill his/her toner without even disassembling the cartridge. They include a special puncture bit that can be placed in a common drill even though some people use soldering irons

With these tools, the user must make a hole toward the rear of the cartridge where the toner reservoir is.

After the hole is made, the toner powder should be poured straight in with the funnel. Finally about this, the opening should be sealed with duct tape or a purpose-made plug.

Shaking the cartridge from side to side helps distribute the toner evenly.

3. Toner Refill Level Circuitry

Some cartridges have an additional refill step. This is the level circuitry. It comes after either of the steps above.

Some devices have toner level-sensing chips, users often have to slide the old chip out of its mount and replace it so that the printer recognizes that the cartridge is full.

Perhaps next time you call in the expert, stand by, and with this in mind, you won’t have to call him/her again and by extension you will without a doubt save some bucks

But until then enjoy your printing experience and of course we wish you all the best.

How Toner Cartridge Recycling Methods Save the Environment

Toner cartridges comprise complex non-biodegradable polymers. The chain of complex bio-molecules emitted from electronic wastes, toner cartridges among them, are the biggest threat to the environment other than carbon emissions.

The polymers can take close to 100 years to decompose.

According to leading environmental science journals, about 18 million cartridges are thrown out every year. The figure being that of Australia alone.

This could be hundreds of billions of toner cartridges in landfills the world over. The irony is that these are cartridges that could as well be recycled to save the environment as well as unnecessary costs incurred in production.

With the budding amount of electronic wastes, it is of all time becoming ever more important to recycle rather than dump.

Recycle centers revamp or rather refurbish, refill, and then resell the toner cartridges, often at considerably lower prices.
In most cases, the results a user gets with a repaired toner cartridge are similar to such when she/he uses a branded toner cartridge.

Why Recycle Toner Cartridges

According to the publications, barely 15 percent toner cartridges are recycled every calendar year.

This translates to over 75,000 tons of cartridges in landfills in developed countries of Europe and the United States (US).

The reports also estimate about 300 million of the same are dumped in the two continents alone.

Further, studies also indicate a single toner cartridge requires approximately 1.5 kilograms of the engineering polymer materials to manufacture.

This simply means recycling and or reusing the cartridges can save the manufacturer so much in terms of resources and while at it keep the environment not only clean but also safe.

Other than cutting down production costs and keeping the environment clean, through buyback programs and toner cartridge refills, the buyer can also get a great deal of money saved as well.

There are numerous toner cartridge recycling programs and a variety of choices along with them. The secret here lies in choosing to dispose of your old toner cartridge in a responsible environmental friendly manner.

Learning how to recycle toner cartridges can be of great help to you and you can as well contribute to the protection of the environment in the following 3 simple ways: Company Recycling, Recycling Programs, and Selling of the Toner Cartridges.

Company Recycling

Brand toner cartridge manufacturing companies such as Canon, Lexmark, and Hewlett Packard (HP) have programs for recycling their cartridges.

The programs are generally available on their websites even though details and the specifics of each may vary from one product or company to another.

Most of these programs work through a program called the Planet Ark.

The program includes drop-off points at various participating retail stores. It should be noted most manufacturers only accept original cartridges. ..

In this case, users who may want to recycle third generation or rather generic cartridges may have to look for other recycling methods.

2. Recycling Programs

Recycling programs vary from recycling banks to recycling drives depending on relevant laws of the particular country.

In Australia for instance, users organize themselves in groups and offer a common drop-off point in the form of recycling banks.

Others are also known to offer curbside pick-ups for the e-wastes.

Due to the dissimilarity, local authorities should specify a preferable way of toner cartridge recycling in a given area. General practice however, is to drop-off toner cartridge at the bank then you send a mail indicating the same.

3. Refilling Toner Cartridges

Despite the above, many people still choose to refill their own toner cartridges. There are also companies that offer services, which include refilling cartridges and sending them back to the various customers.

Refilling is one other a way for consumers to save money they would have used on new cartridges as well as ensuring the environment remains clean and safe by reducing the amount of e-waste going into landfills.

It involves purchasing the right refill kits with the right toner and support equipment. The users should ensure the toner matches the one previously used in the printer.

They should also ensure the refill is compatible with the printer. Important to note is the fact toner cartridge refill route is a tedious procedure that requires one to be familiar with. Alternatively you may get services of a professional.

4. Buy Back Programs

While it is probable to recycle your toner cartridges through a recycling program, there are also organizations working independently who offer cash for empty toner cartridges.

Just like the recycling programs, buyback programs also vary from one location to another. Companies that are involved in this kind of a business normally offer a small amount of money for used toner cartridges, which they refill and re-sell for in most cases the full value of the original cartridge.

This is by far the best option for those who want something back from their cartridges without going through the trouble of refilling them on their own.

While this may not seem a traditional toner cartridge recycling method, it is a good way to ensure it stays in use for a long period of time before it can actually be dumped.

What To Do When Your Toner Suddenly Runs Out

It seems printers are designed to run out of toner when you need it the most, that is, when you have a lot of work to be done.

They tend to jam on the big day. However, there is an old trick that might just buy you some time.

In most cases, the printers lock up and refuse to print once the light comes on but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a few more good print outs. Look, it’s simple.

Usually, toner cartridges have a small sensor hole on the non-gear side of the cartridge. Covering this up with a small piece of electrical tape is the trick you need to bring your printer back to life.

1. Remove and Shake The Cartridge

Cleaning the opening where ink comes out by rubbing a bit of alcohol or water using a piece of cloth is great. Care should be taken not to mix the printing colors in the process.

You should as well let the alcohol or water dry before assembling the toner cartridge back into the printer. Also, shaking the toner can be quite messy.

Both ink and the printing powder are dangerous and messy.

Often, this happens when proper care is not taken while shaking the content of the toner cartridge where each cartridge has a small hole through which the printing materials do come out.

The tiny hole must always be covered with a paper towel or something similar so as to ensure the toner or ink doesn’t spill out.

Other than these two, the following might as well help you in case the toner suddenly gets finished.

3. Replace Toner

First, unplug from socket or switch off the printer/copier machine. This is both a safety measure and a matter of procedure. Take a moment till the machine cools down.

Then crack the printer open. Next open the front cover of the machine. You should be able to see the toner cartridge, which you will remove.

Now prepare the toner cartridge by removing paper inserts from area and touch it carefully by its handle to avoid any damages.

Just before you do a replacement, gently move and shake the new cartridge to ensure the toner is distributed in it evenly.

Replace the toner by using arrows and guides to insert the new one properly in its designated slot, and then close your printer/copier machine.

4. Redistribute Toner

That was the usual way; when at least you have something in stock. However sometimes it is not the case.

Still in a situation where the toner just finished, and your work is due; with high hopes you swiftly turn to the office supply closet and notice mouth a gap there is no toner nor any refill kit items.

Surely this is not the time for such disappointment. You desperately need to finish printing the documents to avoid landing in trouble with your boss.

However, you can still get a few more quality pages out of your printer. All you need to do is to redistribute the liquid in the existing cartridge.

The procedure is rather similar to that of replacing your toner. Turn off and unplug the printer. Open the front hatch, and gently pull out the cartridge.

Then roll the part around a few times to enable the ink to reach every spot of the cartridge, and then reinsert the cartridge right back.

If you happen to drop toner on your clothing, use cold water to remove it, and avoid rinsing with hot water, which may leave you with a permanent toner design on your favorite blouse.

5. Troubleshoot Printer

Other times it is not as obvious. Could be the printer stopped for another reason. Remember it works with a software, which may as well be the reason.

So if the printer/copier machine fails to work despite the above two, try something else, troubleshoot it. It may as well be the quick fix solution.

6. Stock Up on Supplies

And lastly on this, running out of toner is a tricky situation. But merely an inconvenience if you are prepared with a spare.

It is always best to know the exact page yield of your toner so that way you get prepared, and avoid the disappointment.

It is also important to know that; adjusting your spending traditions, employing certain behavior changes around the office, purchasing toner cartridges in bulk, encouraging members of staff to lay off excessive graphics and colors before printing and of course opting for toner replacement services will certainly save you the drama.