In this post I want to show you how to recycle printers, and something else you can do that is even better than recycling.

Printer Recycling 101

There are a couple of ways that a printer can be recycled.  In most cases, the printer is sent back to the manufacturer and they will reuse the working parts.  This is great, but you will usually have to pay them to take it back!  That doesn’t make any sense!!  For example, Epson charges $10 for each item that you send them.  Highway robbery, I say!

A smarter way to do it is to find an e-cycling center in your area.  These places make recycling old printers a breeze, no questions asked, without charging you a dime.  Most major cities have multiple places like this, and some will even come to you to pick your stuff up.  These companies will usually refurbish and sell the stuff that you give them, but it’s now out of your house, and away from the landfill.

Recycling ink cartridges is a bit different.  If you send it back to printer company, they are going to refill it, package it, and sell it right back to you!  Instead, find a store in your town that will take your old cartridges and replace them with ones that they filled up.  You can get ink cartridges for as much as 75% off of what they cost retail by doing this.  Cartridge World is the biggest company that offers ink cartridge refill, but there are others all around the country.

What Else Can You Do?

The coolest thing you can do to recycle old printers (assuming it still works) is donated it to someone that will actually use it.  That might be your little sister, grandma, local school, senior center, or library.  Reusing stuff is much better for the environment than sending it to a recycling center for processing.  If you really want to be a hero, send it to them with ink in it and hook it up for them.  It’s a really good feeling when you know that you’ve helped a person and the planet at the same time!

Printer recycling is a no-brainer, but figuring out which way to do it can be tough.  See if you can find someone to donate it to first, and if that doesn’t pan out, find a local electronics recycling center to drop it off at.

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Ideally, you would be able to give your printer to someone else who can use it.  This prevents the use of the resources it takes to recycle something, and directly helps someone out.  Reusing is much “greener” than recycling, so if you can, do it!  You might have to replace a cartridge before giving to your grandma or little sister, but the intrinsic reward is well worth it.  Donating your laser printer to a non-profit organization can help you get a tax break.

Many of the big printer companies will have a recycling program that will show you how to ship your laser printer back to them.  In most cases, you will have to pay for the shipping, and a few will charge you a fee for them to take your printer.  This way works, but there are local companies that can do the same thing, cheaper.  Read our review of the HP printer recycling program.

Local electronics recycling companies are springing up all over the place.  They will take your laser printer, and all of your old electronics, and recycle them for you.  Some are free, some will charge you, and others will even pay you.  The key is to check out all of the options in your area, and if you live in a large city, there are going to be a lot of them!

Some large corporations will host an e-waste recycling event in your area.  I think this is supposed to be some marketing ploy to show you that they care about your community, but whatever their motives may be, take advantage of them so they can foot the cost of recycling all of your stuff!

Recycling old laser printers is easy to do, and any of the options above will help you get the job done.  Choose the one that’s right for you, but make sure that there isn’t anyone close to you that you can give it to first!

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On their website, HP offers a service that allows you to either recycle or sell them your used printer.  They don’t buy all models, so your ribbon cartridge printer will probably have to recycled!

What’s cool about this service that they do free shipping and handling on HP and Comaq printers.  Great if that’s the brand of printer you have, but not so great if you are planning on recycling printers from different brands.

The buyback program probably isn’t as profitable as it would be if you listed your printer on Craigslist, but all you have to do is ship it to them instead of actually selling it.  I ran the program on my printer (Color Laser Jet 2605dn) and they offered $18 for it in good shape, and $28 in excellent shape.  I could probably get $75 or $100 for it on Craigslist.  Using HP’s service is obviously the easier choice, but if you’re looking to make as much for it as possible, do it yourself!

Be sure to read the fine print after receiving a quote to recycle or sell, that’s where the instructions are for getting everything taken care of, and it’s very wordy!  They certainly could have made that easier.

Don’t forget that there are tons of electronic recycling centers all around the country, and there is probably one in your area.  These places will accept whatever you have to recycle, no questions asked.  Almost always these will recycle your printer for free, no matter what brand it is!

HP makes their printer recycling as easy as it can be for working directly with a big company like that, but it might be more profitable and easy to take care of it yourself locally.  It’s perfect if you don’t want to leave your house!

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The printer companies want you to send your old printers back to them.  Generally, they will charge you a few bucks for this service, which doesn’t make any sense at all.  Maybe I just have it in for the printer companies for all of the times I had to by toner, but even so, this isn’t the best choice.  I have a feeling that they will take your printer from you (after charging you to accept it), then refurbish it and resell it.  I don’t know this for fact, but it makes a lot of sense for them to do it!  See our post on printer cartridge recycling for a similar way that they gouge you.

A better choice is to find a local ecycling place.  Some of these will even pay you to recycle your old printer!  These electronics recycling centers aren’t everywhere, but most major cities will have a few to choose from.  Also, some large companies will host days for their community to bring their old electronics to recycle, and they’ll take care of it from there.  If you don’t have an electronics recycling company in your area, some companies work completely online and will give you free shipping to send them all of your stuff.

Most of the time, they won’t recycle your old stuff.  Instead, they will donate, sell, or refurbish it.  This is great for them as a company, and good for the environment since the resources aren’t needed to process the printer during recycling.

Recycling old printers is a great way to do your part to help protect the environment.  It’s just a matter of finding the right place to send it!

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I’m certainly not a negative person, but this idea just doesn’t make a bit of sense to me.  Print cartridge companies want you to send them your used ink cartridges so they can recycle them.

Great, right?  Well, no.

They will charge a small fee for them to “accept” and “process” your old ink cartridges.  Which isn’t so bad, but do you know what they’re going to do with them?  Fill them back up and sell them to you again!  You are going to pay them a few bucks to recycle old printer cartridges, for them to charge you a ridiculous amount to buy them again!  There has to be a better way!

The Best Way To Recycle Printer Cartridges

The best way to do this is find a company in your area that will printer ink cartridges and replace them with a full one (a recycled cartridge, of course).  This method assumes that you still have your printer, and plan on using it again, but not only are you doing something “green” by sending them your ink cartridge to reuse, you are also saving a ton of money by not paying full price for new ink.  Printer ink is more expensive than gold, ounce for ounce!

These companies are all over the world.  Cartridge World is probably the biggest and well known printer recycling company that provides this service in the US, and they will pick up and deliver.

It’s just common sense, refill your ink cartridges to close the loop and save money at the same time.  Don’t waste your time and/or money dealing with the printer companies.

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