Recycle/Dispose of Epson Plotter Ink Carts...sources?

[mwc]

Have an Epson Stylus Pro 9880 w/ the 220ml tanks (8 total)
I have been boxing the empties (24 at a time) and shipping them to Epson in CA as part of their recycling program...they take them for FREE but I need to ship them at my expense (from OH)....about $20.

Looking for other alternative/disposal resources for these as my BOSS doesn't want to pay the shipping anymore on these....any ideas that you have actually used?

...I know the cost to us for the current method is less than $1 ship a cart to recycle on a $100 cartridge, but the bean-counters are squeezin again...

[determined]

you would think it would be saving Epson money to recycle....I didn't even know they did that and have never ceased to be amazed at the amount of plastic wasted using their proofers....we throw ours right in the trash (and I hate doing it)....I wonder if that's what Epson does when it receives them....

[Joe]

Walmart (here) has little plastic bags you can pick up to put your old catrridges in and then drop them back off at Walmart. Not sure if you can do that with the larger ones though.

At work, our large ones are 750 ml. They are very large. We just throw them in the trash because we do not have a better way of dealing with them.

[Grimace]

That's weird that Epson would not have an included shipping label.
Our HP toner cartridges come with one, just stick it on the box and off it goes, for free.
If Epson promotes a recycle program, they need to make it easy. You may check around at your local brick and mortars and see if they have a drop off.
I do that with our used batteries at home, Radio Shack has, or used to have a drop off, as well as Home Depot. I'ts been a while since we've gone direct, as the city will let me drop off light bulbs and batteries, inkjet cartridges and such for free once a year, I just do it all at once...

[DigiCorn]

I take all of our 7880/10600 ink carts and the toner carts from our 2060/4110 to Cartridge World, a local chain of ink refillers. http://www.cartridgeworld.com/home.aspx

They recycle them for free, and because it's right by my house, I drop them off in person - no shipping charges.

[Santa]

I take our Epson 9600/xerox/hp/ cartridges to our local Staples. They have a business rewards and give you $3 dollars a piece back (up to 10 a month I think) in a Staples check.  I haven't paid for Pens/CD's/or sharpies in years.

[Farabomb]

Thanks for the tip Santa!

[frailer]

You've collectively just prompted me to look at it again here. I hate doing it too, (binning).

[johnny_jay]

We had a worker here that took all ink cartridges home to have their kid take to school. They got some sort of credit for each one brought in. After months of bringing in empty's from our Epson 10K, the school said no more, they weren't recyclable.

[mwc]

Ok, lots of good ideas here (besides tossing them in the trash  :embarrassed:)
We recycle paper,plastics,cardboard, and aluminum in the shop today...but these damn Epson Ink Tanks have been a PIA to find a final resting place for...

What I found out :
Epson DOES have a recycling service (that we used) that you can send your stuff too at YOUR EXPENSE for shipping. I just got an email back today from them, and they could not suggest other ways to dispose of them....and are aware that the shipping costs cause people problems and are 'looking' into options for the program....B.S.  (HP and Brother all have FREE recycling methods.)

Staples looks like it might do it - plus the reward program bonus - (a least no specific exclusions for Ink Tanks), got an email off to them to confirm this right now.
OfficeMax DOES NOT take these Epson Ink Tanks (but do have a reward program for OTHER carts.....you might get away with it a few times, but I got an email stating they DON'T take these tanks...)
The Cartridge World suggestion, a NATIONAL chain of ink refillers. http://www.cartridgeworld.com/home.aspx looks like it will work!! (Contacted them yesterday at my local TOLEDO franchise and they said they would take them)

(I also had a Salesperson that was taking them to his kid's school for awhile...an they too told him to stop bringing them in cause they couldn't use 'em)

Anyhow, I might get a few bucks credit for these...or just taken off my hands, either way it looks like we won't be shipping these out to EPSON on our dime anymore.


Thanks all for the help.  :cool:

[gnubler]

Does Staples take laser cartridges? Looks like just desktop inkjet cartridges.

[mwc]

Does Staples take laser cartridges? Looks like just desktop inkjet cartridges.

They may depending what ya got. Look at http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/products/3dollar_inkrecycle/

[gnubler]

That's what I was looking at. The pretty, bright pictures of all the inkjet packages caused me to wonder if they also accept large, black laser cartridges.

BTW, does anyone have any suggestions on recycling/reusing burned CDs? I'm going through drawers here and finding TONS of old discs. It kills me to toss them in the trash. I can only use so many beer coasters.

[Grimace]

That's what I was looking at. The pretty, bright pictures of all the inkjet packages caused me to wonder if they also accept large, black laser cartridges.

BTW, does anyone have any suggestions on recycling/reusing burned CDs? I'm going through drawers here and finding TONS of old discs. It kills me to toss them in the trash. I can only use so many beer coasters.

We used to recycle all of our bad discs at the CD manufacturing place I worked, but the folks taking them wanted them put through a grinder; we did too since most was expensive software titles.

But their goal was for the aluminum on the discs, not so much the poly.
Search for Polycarbonate Recycling?


Found this: http://www.greendisk.com/gdsite/Default.aspx

[G_Town]

I'm anti green I toss 'em in public parks :tongue: