Cartridge recycling woes - Challenge: Canadian

[genericname]

Sweet! I'm going to send them an e-mail as well, as the inks on their site share a similar designation as ours, but it isn't immediately apparent that they're OEM.

The $10 credit is only forwarded towards the purchase of more ink, instead of a direct pay-out, but that's fiiiiiiiine by me, so long as they're OEM inks.

Patentagosse, you're my new favourite person.

 

[Patentagosse]

Patentagosse, you're my new favourite person.

My pleasure. That's what forums are for... 'Been helped on few occasions so I make my part when occasion arise (sp?) Sorry I'm french-canadian...

 

[genericname]

At those prices....I've got about $600 worth of carts collecting dust here!!

I've got a couple skids of the bloody things. I could build a fort if I wanted.

And Patentagosse, no worries, there are members here from all over the world, and I consider myself Franco-Ontarian.

 

[bob]

Take your pick:

1. Solvent inks are harmful to the environment, and every form of life.

...

If you think that a couple of ounces of solvent ink, or any amount for that matter, in the trash is going to have any effect on anything whatsoever, disabuse your mind.

Just toss them in the dumpster. It will not alter the course of history in any way.

 

[genericname]

Just toss them in the dumpster. It will not alter the course of history in any way.

Can't tell if trolling. Not going to bother.

 

[bob]

Can't tell if trolling. Not going to bother.

Not trolling, just telling you how it is in the real world.

You, of course, will recoil in horror from this. Perhaps because you think that you can actually have some lasting effect on the external reality. This planet is far larger and more resilient than the pathetic efforts of it's current top of the food chain inhabitants to make themselves feel good via their handling of relatively miniscule amounts of substances they deem to be nasty.

If your output of waste ink was realistically measured in four digits of cubic feet per second you might have some concern. It's not and you should not.

 

[genericname]

If your output of waste ink was realistically measured in four digits of cubic feet per second you might have some concern. It's not and you should not.

'Course it's not, but there are a hell of a lot of us.

But that's not an argument I have any interest in getting into. If you can't get behind this from an environmental stance, there's still no reason to not do so from a business standpoint. You have something someone out there is willing to pay you for. It just doesn't make sense to throw it away, when it would take minimal effort on your part, to let someone else give you their money.

 

[genericname]

Just got a very helpful call from John at Ink4U. They are third party inks, but for the sake of a decent recycling program, I'm willing to give them a shot. If all else fails, and we stick with our OEM inks, we can still process our old carts through Ink4U, without having to worry about tossing them or paying for disposal fees.

Sidenote: The Regional Sales Manager for Mimaki is visiting next week. I'm looking forward to seeing what he has to say about them hosting a recycling program for these things.

 

[Patentagosse]

My friend jump into 3rd party ink with Ink4U last year and raves about the fact the only thing he noticed is the fairly good amount of money he saves each month. Not only he haven't had to flush the system but all current profiles worked beautifully, w/o any issue since day 1. He swapped the OEM cartridges by Ink4U ones and continued his printings, just replaced 'em as printer bipped. Real Plug n' Play as he mentioned. I was very sceptical but he proved me it was a good move. He runs 2 Roland printers but both were out-of-warranty so it was the right time to try it. Mine still has 1½ year of coverage so we'll see after that...

 

[gabagoo]

My friend jump into 3rd party ink with Ink4U last year and raves about the fact the only thing he noticed is the fairly good amount of money he saves each month. Not only he haven't had to flush the system but all current profiles worked beautifully, w/o any issue since day 1. He swapped the OEM cartridges by Ink4U ones and continued his printings, just replaced 'em as printer bipped. Real Plug n' Play as he mentioned. I was very sceptical but he proved me it was a good move. He runs 2 Roland printers but both were out-of-warranty so it was the right time to try it. Mine still has 1½ year of coverage so we'll see after that...

I looked into this when they started promoting them but was hesitant to make the switch. My printer is now 5 years old and I wonder if maybe I should try them.

Now if I am not happy with them you saying I can switch back to oem without flushing the lines? hmmmmm



OK on a sidenote I need to know...if the inks are so bad for the environment why is ok to throw out printed material and screwups without any concern. Once the solvents evaporate (into the air....cough, gack wheeze) do the dried inks become harmless?

 

[adrock]

Our Proveer sales rep takes them whenever he/she makes a visit from Calgary. They're probably making a profit on them somehow, but at least we don't have to deal with them.

 

[genericname]

OK on a sidenote I need to know...if the inks are so bad for the environment why is ok to throw out printed material and screwups without any concern. Once the solvents evaporate (into the air....cough, gack wheeze) do the dried inks become harmless?

I don't know about harmless, as the solvent isn't the only harmful chemical in a lot of these inks, but there's probably less of a chance for something like soil or waterbed contamination with a non-liquid material.

Poison or no though, anything diverted from the landfill is a good thing in my book. I'm not about to say that throwing out scrap or misprints is as bad as dumping liquid ink into the ground, but ideally, I'd like to think our end goal would be to eliminate that as well.

 

[genericname]

Our Proveer sales rep takes them whenever he/she makes a visit from Calgary. They're probably making a profit on them somehow, but at least we don't have to deal with them.

Every story like that is ammo for those of us whose suppliers and sales reps don't. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Sticky Signs]

On the west coast the following companies recycle roland carts. Not sure about mimaki or others.
Proveer - All grahics Supplies - Pony graphics.

A little birdy told me that Proveer and AGS bring all the returned carts to Pony as they are the hub for recycling.

they do not give you money back for these but I don't think that should matter. Nobody ever said recycling would be easy. And I've never heard any one say that recycling could be profitable. Than again, i've got about 400$ worth of empties stacked up in my garage.

 

[J Hill Designs]

And I've never heard any one say that recycling could be profitable.

I've seen a few bums around these parts who would beg to differ

 

[Sticky Signs]

Yeah but they're still bums....

 

[adrock]

Every story like that is ammo for those of us whose suppliers and sales reps don't. Thanks for sharing!

Woops. Misread your reply. No problem.

 

[genericname]

...they do not give you money back for these but I don't think that should matter.

So long as they pay for the shipping, I agree! They're part of the overall Roland policy for cartridge reclamation, where you print off one of their shipping labels, and say adios to your clutter, which is pretty damn good compared to other printer companies *cough*mimaki*cough*.

Thanks for the tip all the same though!

 

[genericname]

They did confirm the $4/220cc and $10/440cc credit, and that the credit can only be used towards their aftermarket inks. Not an ideal situation, but at least it's one more option up here in the North, where opportunity went to die.

 

[genericname]

I'll take $2/220 and $5/440 if I can use it towards OEM.

Worth a shot!

No kidding! The last place we were dealing with gave us $1.75 for each 440cc cart, and that was when they hadn't dropped off the face of the earth.

I'm waiting on a sample cart of Magenta from Ink4U, and while I'm always the sceptic, I'm very hopeful. With any luck, we'll be able to take advantage of their recycling, and save some cash by going third party. If not, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

 

[signswi]

If you think that a couple of ounces of solvent ink, or any amount for that matter, in the trash is going to have any effect on anything whatsoever, disabuse your mind.

Just toss them in the dumpster. It will not alter the course of history in any way.

Hi, my name is bob, and I don't understand scale or cumulative actions!

 

[bob]

Hi, my name is bob, and I don't understand scale or cumulative actions!

No sport, I feel as I do because I do have an understanding of scale and the futility of cumulative actions [as well as the inherent fallacy of the concept of collective actions as used in this flavor of rhetoric] against the particular scale with which we are dealing.

Which means: There is no functional difference between treating empty cartridges as if they have the capability to destroy life as we know it or just throwing them in the dumpster.

 

[genericname]

Can we not turn this into a political, ethical, or socio-economic debate, boys? That's why I didn't go into it further earlier. I started this thread for people to share information about how to do something specific, not whether we agree with that specific thing.

Go start another thread if you want to get on a soapbox or get philosophical.

 

[bob]

Can we not turn this into a political, ethical, or socio-economic debate, boys? That's why I didn't go into it further earlier. I started this thread for people to share information about how to do something specific, not whether we agree with that specific thing.

Go start another thread if you want to get on a soapbox or get philosophical.

Here's how it works...

When it's your turn to post you get to post whatever it pleases you to post.

When it's someone else's turn to post they get to post whatever it might please them to post.

If, during this process, the conversation should take some turns of which you might not approve then you most likely will not approve. If this annoys you then you probably will be annoyed. But caught as up in a fit of angst as you might find yourself, your condition does not privilege you to attempt to direct the conversation onto paths with which you perhaps feel more comfortable.

You're the one who originally posted the nonsense about doing whatever it is you want to do with empty ink cartridges being somehow good for the environment. Once an opinion is expressed it becomes fair game for comment.