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Since 2009 developments have been made by remanufacturers to improve their environmental performances, however there is still plenty of room for further improvement.

A report by InfoTrends in 2009 revealed that 21% of toner, 41% of ink cartridges collected by remanufacturers cannot be profitably remanufactured and that 60% of the unusable ink cartridges and 71% of the unusable toner cartridges and replacement parts go to landfill.

It is reported that on average waste is converted to energy by remanufacturers at 66% of non-landfill laser and 88% of non-landfill print cartridges.

It is commonly understand that remanufacturers prefer to work with cartridges that have never been remanufactured. In fact, even if cartridges are reused, it’s more than likely that they would only be reused once, delaying their trip to the landfill, but not preventing it. Used print cartridges are obtained predominantly by Remanufacturers from large supplies resellers and brokers, which is a shift from 2007.

An important consideration when assessing a company’s environmental claim is also where the remanufacturing takes place!

It was reported by InfoTrends that approximately 70% of remanufactured laser print cartridges in the US are shipped overseas for remanufacturing, and then shipped back to the US for consumption. Another example is Canon who sends its cartridges to Japan for reprocessing. The remanufacturers’ environmental claims do not always account for the environmental impacts associated with their operations, ie:  international ‘empties’ transport, parts replacement and disposal, and paper waste!

So although companies are making progress with environmental performances they do still have a long way to go.

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