More and more people are switching to remanufactured cartridges over original manufacturer cartridges. But what’s the appeal?
Cost Efficiency
Printer ink even on the lowest end of the spectrum costs about $13 per ounce, and can get as high as $75. A gallon of printer ink is estimated to cost about $9,600, which is about the same as 2,652 gallons of regular gas or 2,791 gallons of milk. It’s no small wonder that people are looking for alternatives.
Remanufactured cartridges are created by refilling used cartridges, meaning they don’t have to charge for the overhead of manufacturing and raw materials. This saves end users money and decreases the cost of printing.
Environmental Benefits
Ink and toner cartridges often find their way into landfills and incinerators. Unfortunately, these are the last places they should be. Printer ink can contain harmful chemicals and even carcinogens that leech into the surrounding environment, and the plastic cartridges take up to thousands of years to decompose.
Since remanufactured cartridges are recycled, buying them reduces the need to manufacture more plastic cartridges that will last far too long in landfills.
Same or Better Quality
Even though laser printer sales in the U.S. generate about $30 billion in revenue every year, printers sales aren’t actually the money maker for most manufacturers. In fact, many companies sell printers far below the cost of manufacturing because they make up the cost in the sale of ink and toner cartridges.
As a result, some questionable practices have seeped into the manufacture of toner and ink cartridges. Many companies are filling ink and toner cartridges with less ink to force users to buy more of them, and others are making sure not all the ink is delivered to the page, causing users to toss them before they’re actually empty.
Remanufactured printer toner cartridges are almost always filled completely, and usually work as well if not better than their counterparts. Since remanufactured cartridge sellers don’t need to compensate for the overhead of making printers, they can afford to be more honest in their practices.