HP Recycles Old ink Cartridges January 30, 2008 13:42 by John Sollars

HP Recycles old ink cartridges:

HP (Hewlett-Packard) is boosting its effort to effectively recycle used inkjet printer cartridges. They have now rolled out their 'closed loop' process which has been in development and proving since 2005. The process first breaks down plastic in printer cartridges made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), after which additives including fibres and resins are used to strengthen and regenerate the plastic. The remoulded plastic is then used to manufacture new HP inkjet cartridges.

During the proving HP has already manufactued 200 Million printer cartridges and the process will now go into full production.

Each cartridge contains 70 – 100 percent recycled material, Users will find the process beneficial as cartridges with new material perform better than used or refilled cartridges (according to HP).

The inkjet cartridge recycling initiative is the latest in HP's broad effort to be environmentally friendly. HP recently announced that it would implement more energy-efficient technologies across its PC lines to reduce computer energy use by 25 percent in 2010.