This is the sad state of our printing industry since nobody really cares about the plight of empty toner cartridges. Research points out that around 165 million toner cartridges were saved from landfills, but still the bulk of 700 million cartridges end up ditched into dumpsites and landfills worldwide, and the figure is to likely increase by12% annually. With each cartridge weighing around 1.5 kilograms on the average, this translates to e-garbage equivalent to around 825,000 F430 GT3 Ferrari Sports Cars in weight alone. Incessant dumping proliferated because not all laser printer users have been duly informed about the availability of compatibles in the aftermarket or the operation of recycling centers in our country.
Konica Minolta is aware of its social responsibility and thus designed its replacement cartridges to be refill friendly; thereby extending the lifecycle of each cartridge to at least 3 refills. At the end of the serviceable life of each cartridge, Konica Minolta Clean Planet program entices its customer base to return used toner cartridges for recycling through parcel services, free of charge. Programs such as Clean Planet will help decongest our dumpsites, landfills and incinerators from tons and tons of e-garbage.
Recycling not only involves the return of empty toner cartridges to printer manufacturers. The use of toner refill kits to refill used or empty toner cartridges is one form of recycling. Refills can be administered over empty Konica Minolta toner cartridges such as the 1710517-005; allowing the user to save in the process. An OEM toner cartridge for the QMS 2300DL laser printer retails at around $120 and yields some 4,500 pages at 5% coverage, while the equivalent Konica Minolta 2300 toner refill kit is sold online for only $22.00. Since both toner products exhibit similar characteristics, expect print quality and yield performance for both OEM and compatible toner to be similar as well. Most likely, the only factor making customers hesitant from using toner refill kits is the perception that the refill process is difficult. Well, browsing the illustrated instructional material would tell you that refilling an empty cartridge is so easy that it can be completed from between 5 to 10 minutes.
Even though only 52% of laser printer users are aware of the presence of toner refill kits as an aftermarket replacement consumable, this figure will surely continue to rise as consumers will begin to appreciate its benefits
