by Tara Green
(NaturalNews) Every time you print a page on your inkjet printer, the printer forces you to waste ink. The companies who sell printers and accompanying cartridges build this automatic waste feature into their printers for profit. By structuring their printers to demand rapid ink usage requiring more frequent cartridge purchases, they not only force unnecessary consumer expense, they also contribute to environmental waste.
Consumer Expense
There’s an old saying used to advise people to develop diverse talents and income streams: “Always have more than one string to your fiddle.” Apparently the makers of computer printers have taken that saying to heart. In addition to profits from sales of their printers, and accompanying sales of inkjet cartridges used at a normal rate, they have developed methods to make sure their customers go through ink more rapidly. More frequent inkjet cartridge purchases mean greater profits — and as everyone knows, inkjet cartridges can carry hefty price tags. If calculated per ounce, inkjet ink costs more than vintage champagne. Although obviously you can’t use champagne to print a color photo, the comparison gives a good idea of how much mark-up there is the ink.
Environmental Cost
Another famously pricey liquid commodity, one which poses serious environmental concerns, is used in the manufacture of inkjet cartridges. According to a report by Preton, a company which offers green printing software to reduce cartridge waste, “It takes a gallon of fossil oil to produce one laser cartridge, and 2-1/2 ounces of oil to manufacture each new inkjet cartridge. The energy used to manufacture 350 million cartridges [the number thrown out each year worldwide] is enough to make tens of thousands of SUVs.”
Inkjet printer cartridges are the technology industry’s equivalent of the styrofoam packaging fast food restaurants used in the past. A means of leaving a lasting legacy of trash. As the Preton report points out, each inkjet cartridge “becomes 3.5 pounds of solid waste sitting in a landfill and can take from 450 to 1,000 years to decompose, as it includes mixed resin, one of the most difficult plastics to recycle.”
The chemicals in ink are toxic. Although the level of toxicity is low enough that there is little harm in handling them except in case of accidental ingestion, if cartridges are not disposed of properly, they can contribute pollution. If an inkjet cartridge thrown in the trash is punctured or burned, the cartridge can explode releasing toxic fumes either into the soil, groundwater or air. Printer ink residue contains Volatile Organic Chemicals (VCOs) which can cause birth defects and serious health problems, even cancer.
Built-In Methods of Wasting Ink