Brother International Corporation (BIC) has organized a responsible recycling program through its “AT YOUR SIDE”- corporate aphorism. The program aims to encourage Brother equipment and peripheral consumers to recycle used components such as empty toner cartridges by returning it back to BIC for proper recycling and disposal. Some of the returned printer peripherals are remanufactured while other metal and plastic components are broken down, reprocessed and used as raw materials for the manufacture of other printer parts.
To seal this noble intention geared at preserving the environment, BIC designed its recycling facilities to conform to ISO 14001 (International Organizations for Standardization) guidelines and consequently addressed pertinent environmental management concerns. The ISO is a series of standards that are relevant to environmental management systems. In fact, Brother selected five R’s as keywords intended to encapsulate the company’s environmental activity REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE, REFORM, and RECYCLE. This environmental program rightfully serves Brother’s stature as an environmentally responsible corporate citizen.
The Brother “AT YOUR SIDE” recycling program accepts used laser printer toner cartridges and users are encouraged to deliver properly packed, empty printer cartridges to the different pick-up points designated around the country. Another option is to forward used consumables by mail (free of charge) using shipping labels that can be printed from Brother’s recycling page on its website. Note however that unlike HP and Staples, Brother does not provide incentives, cash rewards or tax rebates for every toner cartridge returned.
Recycling at the personal level is easy with Brother consumables since all Brother OEM toner cartridges are provided with toner fill holes. Once the toner cartridge runs dry, a user will only have to open the fill hole by flipping the hopper plug off the toner chamber and pouring in fresh toner powder supplied by a toner refill kit. Now the refill process can be performed 3 to 4 times until the cartridge has reached its maximum effective print cycle. By then, the consumable can be forwarded to the Brother recycling plants for appropriate disposal.
Brother laser printer users have the distinct advantage over other printer users since the BIC takes proper care of its consumers by providing them not only user-friendly products but environmentally fine-tuned equipment as well.
