Printer cartridge recycling paying off- Money being raised for schools and social causes

An increasing number of schools and non-profit
groups are collecting empty ink cartridges from
computer printers for recycling. But the trend is being
driven by more than environmental friendliness.

By David F. Gallagher
New York Times

There is a surprising amount of money in those
hunks of plastic, some of which end up paying for
things such as school computers and famine relief.

What makes the cartridges valuable is strong
demand from an emerging industry of companies
called remanufacturers, many started by
entrepreneurs who spotted a market niche. These
companies overhaul and refill inkjet and laser
cartridges and sell them to consumers at prices considerably lower than what printer manufacturers charge for new
cartridges. By rewarding schools, charities and other groups for sending in the empties, the industry has enlisted an
army of cartridge hunters.

One of the largest cartridge recycling programs is run by the Funding Factory, which says it has signed up 22,000
institutions. Most are schools that send in used cartridges and, more recently, cell phones. The Funding Factory
provides promotional material for school fund-raising campaigns and boxes with prepaid shipping labels that
schools can use to send the collected materials to the company. Participants can log on to http://www.fundingfactory.com
to track a tally of reward points and redeem those points for cash or computers and other school supplies.

Participants say they are happy with the program’s simplicity and with the money it generates. Joy Hogg, technology
director at St. Ann School, a parochial school in Cadillac, Mich., said she had set up an “inkjet route” for picking up
cartridges from local banks, the sheriff’s office, the county courthouse and the parish church. “I don’t go through any
red tape to pay for shipping,” she said, “and there is no paperwork for the school.” The school has acquired 40
headphones worth about $15 each through the Funding Factory project.

The simplicity of the program has its price. Funding Factory is a division of ERS Imaging Supplies of Erie, Pa., a
broker that assembles batches of cartridges for sale to remanufacturers (www.ers-imaging.com). Although the
Funding Factory site does not advertise that option, people who are willing to forgo the free boxes and other
conveniences of the program can send their cartridges directly to ERS and get about twice as much money for them.
ERS pays about $4 for inkjet cartridges and up to $20 for some laser cartridges.

David Steffens, a senior vice president of ERS and head of the Funding Factory program, said the difference in the
amount paid was partly related to the higher cost of running the school program. For example, he said, the Funding
Factory pays for all shipping and packaging, even though it is unable to resell a quarter of the cartridges it receives.
But even those are recycled, he said.

Larger groups can get more out of their cartridges by setting up their own programs. Food for the Poor, an
international relief organization based in Deerfield Beach, Fla., developed one by working with M.B. Sales, a cartridge
broker in Canoga Park. Businesses or individuals who sign up at http://www.foodforthepoor.org get postage-paid boxes
they can use to collect cartridges. The boxes go directly to M.B. Sales, which covers all the costs of the program and
pays the group up to $22 for laser cartridges and $2 to $4 for inkjets, depending on the model.

The program started in April and, after little more than an announcement in the group’s newsletter, is now bringing in
a few thousand dollars a month, said Glen Belden, director of corporate and planned giving at Food for the Poor. He
said he expected a big expansion as several large companies started participating.

“You send me four of your laser cartridges, and I’ve just fed a family of five for a year,” Belden said. “It’s
environmentally conscious, and it’s a great awareness builder.”

The only potential losers in this recycling equation are printer manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, which have
generally sold printers at low prices in hopes of profiting from the sale of pricey replacement cartridges. “It’s a
classic razor-and-blades business model,” said Jim Forrest, an analyst who follows the imaging industry for Lyra
Research.

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