How Much Ink is used in used in Green Announcements

Within the last several years, the push to go Green has become prevalent in today’s technological society. Electronic companies have been developing new ways to reuse or recycle printers and printer cartridges in hopes to cut down on the amount of waste accumulated each year. For instance, “Xerox announced that since 1991 is has recycled a total of 2 billion pounds of spent toner cartridges, outmoded printers and enough waste to fill more than 160,000 garbage trucks .” The Environmental Protection Agency also joined the race encouraging “electronic manufactures and retailers to join its Plug into eCycling program, by collecting and recycling ink cartridges and machines to save enough electricity to power more than 7,000 homes.” While these projects are valiant, there is much more to be accomplished in order to protect our environment from the mass amount of waste. In particular, printer companies create designs that make it impossible for consumers to refill their ink cartridges. Another factor that makes recycling even more difficult is that H.P. found most average consumers keep their printers for seven years and computers for even twelve. By then, even charities don’t want them and few parts are usable. While I would argue that most average consumers do not keep their printers and computers for longer than four or five years finding a way to making today’s technology green friendly is imperative. Professor Lee’s lecture also focused on the mass amount of technological waste found in China.

Professor Lee discussed that while “recyclability is key, manufacturers do not focus on recycle-ability as parts are soldered together rather than clipped.” Today companies like Mac or Dell are constantly coming up with new designs and models of the latest gadgets. Consumers are constantly temped to toss last year’s model to get the newer and improved version. It is crucial that computer companies come up with a better way to reuse and recycle these products.


posted by: Alexandra Catalano

http://http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/but-how-much-ink-is-used-in-green-announcements/