My House of Ink

Replacing ink cartridges can often cost more than the printer did in the first place. Whether you’re replacing Canon ink cartridges, Epson, or Brother, here are a few tips to make your dollar last longer.

• Buy your ink online, at Web sites such as Discount Ink Cartridges. Even though some sites may charge shipping costs, you will still be avoiding the markup at your neighborhood big box store.
• Look for refurbished ink. These are recycled ink cartridges that have been refilled with new ink, and cost less than a brand new cartridge does.
• Purchase a refill kit. You can fill up those old cartridges at home, and most kits have enough for about eight to 10 refills.

Where does printer ink go when it dies? If you’re conscientious of the world around you, it goes into the recycling. Ink cartridges can be returned to most manufacturers or to a retail outlet, where they’re transported to a recycling center.And what happens at that point? The cartridges are either deemed reusable, or they’re de-manufactured, and the various parts are used to make other products. Recycling your old printer ink is extremely important. According to a study, more than 500 million ink jet cartridges 70 million laser cartridges are sold every year in the United States. And every year, 400 million of those cartridges make their way into a landfill. That’s 200 billion pounds of old plastic clogging up the landfills, waiting 1,000 years to decompose.

So before you toss that cartridge into the trash, just think about where it could end up, and take it to a store instead.