You have to start somewhere... Sep 30, 2009 10:14 by Huw Carrington

Well, here I am at Stinkyink, with my own desk, my own phone, and even my very own stapler. I’ve been here less than a week and already I’ve persuaded them to let me throw together a post for our blog, something I have honestly never done before, so here goes nothing!

In the week I’ve been here, answering phones, returning emails, and generally enjoying helping people to get what they need, I’ve been asked quite a few times what we do in regards to recycling of ink and toner, and I’ve found it very reassuring just how many people seem to care for our planet, something that I find very comforting. Perhaps our little blue planet has hope yet.

Down in the stores, on just my first day, I found a stack of green envelopes, which we send out with all orders containing original cartridges, (and on some that don’t!) so that our customers – I was quite shocked to find we have something like a hundred and fifty thousand of you! – can send their old, empty cartridges away for free (they also accept mobile phones, but we don’t sell phones, so this is of limited use to us!). Like this, they’ll eventually reach a firm that works with charities, schools and businesses (like ourselves) called The Recycling Factory, who clean and refill these old dead cartridges (all the way to the top – more ink, less waste), not only making sure that fewer cartridges are dropped into landfills, but also saving us quite a bit of money – a saving that we then pass on to you.

I was a little disappointed to find that we can’t do similar with the many toner cartridges that we send out, because they’re just that much bigger, and TRF don’t have envelopes big enough. So, this disappointment weighing heavily on my mind, I had a hunt around our offices, and bugged someone in purchasing until they recommended Reclaim It to me – since then I’ve linked at least half a dozen curious customers to them. People like those at Reclaim It make me proud that there are those out there who care enough about our world to do something about it; as such, I think you should read their site for yourself, as my comments on them will merely dilute the great things they do.

There are lots of groups that do similar to these two companies that we’ve mentioned, and a quick search online will show up hundreds of them, but TRF and Reclaim It are the ones that I’ll happily vouch for, which is why they get a special mention here.

Like so many people out there, individuals and businesses both, we recycle all the cardboard and paper that we can, we don’t put the heating on if we can help it, we only boil as much water as we need; in short, we do our part, but it’ll take more than that to keep our tiny speck of civilisation going.

A final thought? Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle; three things I’m pretty sure you can do with our remanufactured cartridges.