If you do a lot of printing then refilling your toner cartridges can save you a lot of money. You may not think it is possible to refill most modern toner and ink cartridges but that’s exactly what the printing companies want you to think.
But before we speak about saving money, lets first consider the environmental aspect. Take a look at that toner cartridge in your laser printer, if you have color then your probably looking at four or five of them. Each one takes up to 4 litres of oil to produce, and each time one runs out of ink then another one is produced to take it’s place. The fact is that it is completely unnecessary, the cartridge is perfectly capable of being used again apart from being out of ink.
We used to be able to refill all cartridges, just as we did with the old photocopiers with a bottle of replacement toner poured directly in through a filler cap. THe problem was it didn’t make the printer companies enough money. So they slowly removed the caps, then when people started making their own they started putting in ‘killer chips’ that made the cartridge useless when it had printed one run.
This is the real scandal, resources are increasingly directed at stopping people reusing and recycling toner cartridges. Anyway fear not the killer chips can be replaced easily for a few pennies, the refill holes can be replaced using a cheap tool and most toner cartidges can be refilled. Search on the internet or check your local press and you’ll find loads of companies who are very experienced in supplying simple refill kits that can be used to refill toner cartridges. It’s a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and save yourself lots of money at the same time.