What do I do with empty toner cartridges?

January 19, 2006 12:20 PM

My office has a lot of empty toner cartridges from laser printers sitting around. What should I do with them? I don't feel good about throwing them in the trash, but whenever I research selling the cartridges to a company, I can only get something like 1 dollar for each (and that will barely cover the shipping costs). What do I do??
posted by svdodge to Technology (12 answers total)

Every place I've worked at sends them back to the original company that makes them in the original box. HP even included a UPS sticker inside the box, back when I was doing the work study thing in college. I doubt you'll get any money for them, but then again, I could be wrong.
posted by cellphone at 12:23 PM on January 19, 2006

Staples will give you $3 (in Staples store credit, of course) for each ink or toner cartridge you give to them. There's no info about it on their web site, but there are signs in-store and commercials on TV about it. They accept all cartridges now, too; they used to exclude Epson ink cartridges, for example.
posted by zsazsa at 12:26 PM on January 19, 2006

Ditto what cellphone said. Just recycle them. You won't get money for it, but they don't go in the trash
posted by poppo at 12:29 PM on January 19, 2006

Office Depot/Max give credit for inket, I'm not sure about toner. Additionally, some charities will take them so they can use the store credit. I know my Petsmart has a collection box (again, I'm sure about inkjet, not positive about toner).

All our HP toner comes with UPS labels.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:47 PM on January 19, 2006

If you feel like doing a bit of leg work, check with the local school. They might have ink/toner cartridge recycling program. A school around here gets money for recycling old cellphones and spent cartridges.
posted by ArcAm at 1:26 PM on January 19, 2006

ArcAm is right. A non-profit Montessori School near me collects them too. I know they make something from doing this, but I don't know the details.
posted by R. Mutt at 2:03 PM on January 19, 2006

Call your local school, especially elementary schools. A lot of them collect these for the money. I guess it goes to the PTA.

Giving it to HP just perpetuates their monopoly on high prices. Take to your school or sell it to a refiller and do consumers a favor.
posted by caddis at 2:25 PM on January 19, 2006

There's a company in Australia called Laser Exchange. They supply recycled/refilled ("remanufactured") toner cartridges and part of the deal is that they take back all your used ones.
posted by krisjohn at 2:37 PM on January 19, 2006

My friend google has some useful suggestions about this matter.
posted by googly at 2:48 PM on January 19, 2006

We have a place in town that collects dead automotive batteries and old toner cartridges. They pay a small bounty, and they make their money by collecting large lots before shipping to recyclers. The Economics of scale allow them a marginal profit.

Very interstitial -- Maybe you're phone directory lists a similar company?
posted by Crosius at 3:44 PM on January 19, 2006

Office Max will give you a ream of paper for every ink and toner cartridge you bring them. I've got nearly a case of paper at home because of this.
posted by ewagoner at 4:29 PM on January 19, 2006

Office Depot does the same thing, but when I dropped one off about a month ago they weren't offering the paper. The employee gave me the impression that the program was going to start back up the next week.
posted by user92371 at 6:49 PM on January 19, 2006