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It would probably surprise most people to learn how many printer products, such as a common HP toner cartridge, are thrown away each year. For example, the average college student uses around eight inkjet cartridges per year. A grade school or high school uses roughly three hundred toner cartridges every year. Finally, a medium sized business easily uses thousands of inkjet and laser cartridges every single year. Worldwide, hundreds of millions of these cartridges are used and disposed of each year. In fact, some estimates place the number of combined inkjet and toner cartridges used throughout the world every year at over a billion.

Unfortunately, a vast majority of these products are just thrown away and not recycled. In the United States alone every year, these thrown away products weight about as much as seventy thousand sports utility vehicles, or well over a hundred thousand compact cars. This type of wastefulness is not only horrible, it is also completely unsustainable in the long run (and possibly the short term as well).

Not surprisingly, it takes many of these cartridges, such as an HP toner cartridge, over a thousand years to decompose. Due to the high quality plastics and other synthetic materials used in these products, they will be around for millennia if they are simply throw away. Furthermore, it can take around two and a half ounce of oil to make one inkjet cartridge, while a laser toner cartridge can require ten times that.

On the other hand, many of these cartridges are very easily recyclable or even reusable. Many people refill their own cartridges, while others recycle or donate their spent cartridges at local businesses or on the internet. When the future of our world is at stake, it is important to do what we can to ensure a more sustainable society.