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Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Empty Toner Cartridges? 189

Posted by timothy from the using-them-as-ice-cream-dishes-is-popular dept.
New submitter MoarSauce123 writes: Over time I accumulated a number of empty toner cartridges for a Brother laser printer. Initially, I wanted to take a local office supply chain store up on their offer to give me store credit for the returned cartridge. For that credit to be issued I would have to sign up for their store card providing a bunch of personal information. The credit is so lousy that after the deduction from the sales price of a new toner cartridge the price is still much higher than from a large online retailer. And the credit only applies to one new cartridge, so I cannot keep collecting the credit and then get a cartridge 'for free' at some point.

I also looked into a local store of a toner refill chain. Their prices are a bit better, but the closest store is about half an hour away with rather odd business hours. Still, at the end they charge more than the large online retailer asks for a brand new cartridge. For now I bring the empty cartridges to the big office supply store and tell them that I do not want their dumb store credit. I rather have big corp make some bucks on me than throw these things in the trash and have it go to a landfill. Are there any better options? Anything from donating it to charity to refilling myself is of interest.
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Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Empty Toner Cartridges? More

Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Empty Toner Cartridges?

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  • How about? (Score:4, Funny)

    by edittard ( 805475 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @01:46PM (#50019991)

    How about hiding them behind an icon?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Duh, store them in the cloud.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 )
      Ugh..it is trash.

      Throw it away, let the garbagemen earn their pay and haul it away for you.

      • Re:How about? (Score:5, Informative)

        by mlts ( 1038732 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @02:33PM (#50020357)

        The local big box store has a receptacle for toner cartridges. Hit Best Buy, chuck them in there, call it done, the end.

        I had a lot of toner cartridges as well, but no use in keeping them. They are not going to appreciate in value, and as time goes on, that toner cartridge format will be used by fewer printers, so might as well dispose of them properly (and properly isn't the trash can.)

        • The local big box store has a receptacle for toner cartridges. Hit Best Buy, chuck them in there, call it done, the end.

          I had a lot of toner cartridges as well, but no use in keeping them. They are not going to appreciate in value, and as time goes on, that toner cartridge format will be used by fewer printers, so might as well dispose of them properly (and properly isn't the trash can.)

          I'd likely waste more $$ on gas packing up and driving to a Best Buy to drop off a single cartridge, than would be sav

          • Not worth you time driving around for a single toner cartridge? Has it not occured to you to chuck them in a box thats out of the way, then dump the box when its full..?

  • Google It (Score:5, Informative)

    by great throwdini ( 118430 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @01:47PM (#50020003)
    Seriously, just Google it: brother toner cartridge recycling program [brother-usa.com]
    • Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.

      • Re:Google It (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ClickOnThis ( 137803 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @02:30PM (#50020333) Journal

        Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.

        I wish I could find something on their website that states what they actually do with the returned toner cartridges. All I could find is this:

        We will evaluate the opportunities to recycle, reuse, reduce, refuse and reform resources throughout the life cycle of our products.

        My emphasis. This is not a commitment to recycle. It's feel-good corporate-speak.

        Do they actually dismantle and recycle them? Do they refurbish them, or sell them to a refurbisher? Or do they just dispose of them so that they stay out of the after-market?

        I'm sorry to be cynical. Brother may very well be acting as a good corporate citizen. But when I don't see explicit mention of their actions, I start to wonder what they are.

        • Brother is publicly traded. The information is most likely out there.

        • Re:Google It (Score:4, Interesting)

          by LinuxIsGarbage ( 1658307 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @03:28PM (#50020957)

          I always assumed manufacturers collecting spent toner cartridges to "recycle" was a conspiracy to keep third party re-manufactures from getting used cartridges to rebuild.

          • That was exactly my point, per my speculation:

            Or do they just dispose of them so that they stay out of the after-market?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fnj ( 64210 )

          Who in hell cares, if they are taking them off my hands at no cost to me?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Cannon recycle plastics into new products, such as calculators. I seem to recall Brother claiming the same thing in some marketing material in Japan.

        • My emphasis. This is not a commitment to recycle. It's feel-good corporate-speak.

          I don't think so. The problem is as always: lawyers. This is quite likely a very legitimate program started with someone's good idea. But when they went to publish it the legal team would have skimmed through and reworded everything so they can't ever be held liable for anything.

          I work for a very large corporation and we do the same. We legitimately run such programs but advertise them with weazel words just in case something doesn't go quite right, so someone doesn't then hold us to account on a stuff-up.

        • Why not just refill them? Especially brother carts as most of those units have a seperate drum assy. Did it for a few months for a living and the brothers all have a cap you pop off, dump in new toner and done.. waaaaay cheaper then even a refilled cart and no chip.
          • If you care about quality, refills are an iffy proposition. If "not quite as black as OEM" or similar flaws are OK, go for it.

        • Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.

          I wish I could find something on their website that states what they actually do with the returned toner cartridges. All I could find is this:

          We will evaluate the opportunities to recycle, reuse, reduce, refuse and reform resources throughout the life cycle of our products.

          My emphasis. This is not a commitment to recycle. It's feel-good corporate-speak.

          Do they actually dismantle and recycle them? Do they refurbish them, or sell them to a refurbisher? Or do they just dispose of them so that they stay out of the after-market?

          I'm sorry to be cynical. Brother may very well be acting as a good corporate citizen. But when I don't see explicit mention of their actions, I start to wonder what they are.

          I suspect there are two problems for them in being too clear. First, I suspect they can't guarantee to reuse every cartridge - some of them will be damaged or contaminated, I imagine; second, they won't want to validate third party cartridge refills by admitting they actually do refills themselves! I recycle my Lexmark cartridges by mailing them back (with a prepaid shipping label they include with every new cartridge); my guess is they will refill and reset perfect-condition cartridges, recondition damaged

      • Re:Google It (Score:4, Interesting)

        by basscomm ( 122302 ) <basscomm.crummysocks@com> on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @02:39PM (#50020429) Homepage

        Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.

        It's not just Brother, just about every printer manufacturer will send you packing materials and / or a shipping label, all for free. Brother laserjet cartridges get a few points by frequently having the return label already in the box with the new one, so you just put the old one in the box, slap the label on it, and drop it in the mail.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by devman ( 1163205 )
        I recently replaced a toner cartridge in my hp cp1510i. The box the new cartridge came in had a UPS shipping label inside it. You put the old toner cart in the new box and put the label on it and give it to UPS. I assume like Brother, HP gets something out of this. They must take them apart and reuse parts or something or maybe just refill them.
    • Pack the old toner cartridge in the box, taped the shipping label on the box, and leave it out for the mail carrier. I've done that for years.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dysmal ( 3361085 )
      Just in case it's not obvious enough: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=brother+t... [lmgtfy.com]

    • He doesn't want to give up all that info to make an account. I think something similar about that was in the summary somewhere. I can't tell if it makes a difference to give it to the store or ship it back to the factory yourself.

  • There is very little you can do with it. The stuff is carcinogenic, dangerous and mostly plastic. In some states it's illegal to just dump them in the general waste.

  • They seem to sell on ebay... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    http://www.ebay.com/bhp/empty-toner-cartridges

  • Refill (Score:5, Interesting)

    by afidel ( 530433 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @01:51PM (#50020041)

    For most Brother cartridges you can find refill kits for a fraction of what even generic toner carts with poor reviews cost. I've had good luck with mine, though you WILL want to buy new end caps as they get damaged enough when you remove them that they will almost always leak toner which makes a mess and ruins prints.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

      Links?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by afidel ( 530433 )

        Here's [amazon.com] the one I bought for my color MFP last time I bought, the frequently bought together caps are what I bought after having a mess with the black cart after refilling it.

        • Re:Refill (Score:4, Informative)

          by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @02:15PM (#50020213) Homepage Journal

          Thanks for this. My experience with the refurb vendors has been fair to terrible. I wonder if I should just replace the caps on a leaky refurb toner I got. Brother makes good machines and sells their carts for a king's ransom. I was literally contemplating $50 more for a new Brother color laser than for a set of toner carts for my existing Brother color laser. The refurbs run 25% of the cost, but I'd rather refill them myself now that I know it's possible.

          As to the OP - don't spend a gallon of gasoline to bring a toner cart in for recycling - just toss in the trash if that's your only option (for a brand without a mail-back program). Economics is hard, but recycling without considering economics is stupid.

          • Just FYI, the cartridges that come with new laser printers hold around 1/10th the toner of a new cartridge. So you aren't quite getting the deal you think, but I will say I am seriously considering the same thing now that I have two carts showing empty on my Brother Laser.

            • Re:Refill (Score:5, Informative)

              by Marginal Coward ( 3557951 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @03:11PM (#50020777)

              You can extend the useful life of the Brother cartridges by resetting its "flag gear" as shown here. [youtube.com]. Resetting flag gears is an essential skill for anyone who buys a Brother laser printer with the hope that the per-page printing cost will be low. Like many printer makers, the thing starts refusing to print when the cartridge has a long way to go. Luckily, the folks at Brother have engineered a way around that problem for us.

              Unfortunately, the teaser cartridges that come with the printer are missing some small parts that are required for reset. Those can be bought as part of a toner refill kit [amazon.com], though I ended up buying new cartridges before I knew that.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by PRMan ( 959735 )
            I just got color laser cartridges for my HP from Amazon. They are not "official", but I have had no problems with them. Of course, I made sure to get the highest-rated generics, which were about $20 more than the lowest-rated, but still $180 cheaper than the "official" HP ones. Other than the HP driver complaining vehemently about my fake cartridges, there have been no problems.

          • Our experience with refurbs at work are horrible. They always leak and we've had a few damage printers. We stick to OEM now. It's just not worth the bother.

        • I've had good luck with the toner refill product you linked. Here's a corresponding link to the caps [amazon.com]. I always end up damaging those in the process of removing them, so I always replace them with new ones.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

          Thanks Googleing is all fine and good but a recommendation from someone that used it makes all the difference IMHO.

      • Not Brother, but I've used TonerRefillKits [tonerrefillkits.com] for Samsung printers. Pretty good instructions, custom kit for every model.

        • I second TonerRefillKits. A very complete kit. The first refill takes a bit longer than others because the replacement toner is incompatible with the Brother toner so you have to spend some time making sure you empty out the remains of the original. After that, refills are quick. The Brothers are designed for easy refill (unlike the Samsung color cartridges which were both painful and prone to leaking toner). You should be able to get 3 refills out of a cartridge before the roller starts smearing. Then take

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      I used to refill cartridges. It was no big deal. Now I just buy refurbished cartridges.

      In any case, won't the store take catridges, even if you don't sign up? Sure you won't get paid, but why is that an issue.

      if the question is how to get rich by recycling cartridges, that answer is to get a warehouse and postpaid return envelopes. Refill then yourself, list them on ebay, and watch the buck roll in.

  • Available all over the place, a toner refill kit gives you a bottle of toner, a soldering iron with a circular cut-out tool attached and some stickers. Cut a hole in the cartridge, fill it with ink, stick a sticker over the hole and throw it back into your printer. Works for me.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by afidel ( 530433 )

      No need for the soldering iron with Brother, they've got little plastic caps that can be pulled, though you'll want replacement caps as they get damaged almost 100% when you pull them out.

      • Also, it appears as though at least some Brother laser printers have a "used" flag on them that can be reset and the cartridge will print as if you replaced it.

        HL-3070CW directions:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

        So, look up your printer, and flip the flag and keep printing.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by afidel ( 530433 )

          Yeah, on the TN210 carts you have to buy a special reset gear that resets the flag, most of the refill kits come with them or the seller sells them alongside.

  • Kinda similar ... (Score:3)

    by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @01:56PM (#50020085) Homepage

    We have a couple of Brother laser printers in the house .. one's just a printer, the other is the same laser printer base with a scanner/fax/photocopier thing on the top. The both use the same cartridge.

    The problem is that a new toner cartridge costs as much as a new printer, which comes with a toner cartridge. It's almost not cost effective to replace the cartridge.

    Every time we need a new cartridge my wife wants to recycle the printer and buy a new one.

    The idea of that makes me cringe, but I can't defend that it costs less to buy the toner cartridge attached to a printer.

    I don't know what to tell you to do. If the choice is jump through ridiculous hoops, pay extra, or say to hell with it and bin the cartridges ... I'm afraid chucking them in the garbage is the easiest choice.

    If they're going to make it impossible to recycle the toner cartridges, people might give up on trying.

    • Re:Kinda similar ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by afidel ( 530433 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @02:04PM (#50020131)

      The lost leader carts in new printers generally have half or less toner than replacements so you're paying 2-3x as much per print AND you're contributing to e-waste. What I do is buy a toner refill kit and fill up the out of box cart with the same amount of toner as you get in the "high capacity" cartridges that cost more than the printer in some cases. My last 5 bottle refill kit (2 black, CMY) was $30 and printed a few thousand pages.

      • The strategy of buying a new printer actually did work for a while, until the printer makers figured it out and started shipping reduced capacity cartridges with the printers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GWBasic ( 900357 )
      In addition to the comments that explain that new printers come with almost-empty toner cartridges; remember that you have to go through the trouble to set up the new printer. Dropping in new toner to something that already works saves time.

  • Check with the local dump (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The recycling building at my local dump has a bin specifically for spent toner cartridges right next to the one for dead UPS batteries.

  • holy black lung, Batman! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Thud457 ( 234763 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @02:02PM (#50020127) Homepage Journal
    Although you can make a bong from an old toner cartridge, it's probably not a good idea.

  • Call Goodwill and other charities that specialize in job-training. Some of them may do printer-cartridge-recycling in-house and would love to have your recyclable cartridges.

    Others charities may not do it in-house but they may have buyers lined up to buy cartridges in bulk and will take your donated cartridges.

  • Bludgeon Dice employees with them (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Bob the Super Hamste ( 1152367 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @02:27PM (#50020299) Homepage
    Bludgeon Dice employees to death with them.

    Seriously who ever screwed up the front page so it all renders on the left all of a sudden needs to be clubbed over the head a few times.

  • Best solution (Score:5, Funny)

    by NEDHead ( 1651195 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @02:30PM (#50020329)

    I bought a laser cutting machine, put it on low, and just burn the text onto the paper. No cartridges to return or refill ever. I currently use solar panels for power, but I don't like the 80% inefficiency, so I am looking into using a lens and fiberoptics to use the light directly. This way I can also incorporate a prism and do color printing.

  • What are your printing so much of and, more importantly, why are you printing it?

    We are half way done with 2015. I can't remember the last time I had to have something printed.

    Wait, do you work for the US Bureau of Printing and Engraving [moneyfactory.gov]?

  • Only in the US.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Wdi ( 142463 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @03:03PM (#50020659)

    would you even consider to throw these into normal trash. Here in Germany, that would get you fined - (almost) empty laser printer cartridges are nearly on the same level of nastiness as old engine oil.

    On the other hand, if you do not find a commercial recycling program you like (every toner manufacturer and seller on the German market has to take back its empty cartridges at zero cost, and of course we also have companies which specialize in refills and pay a few dimes for used cartridges), every communal recycling center accepts toner cartridges free of charge. And in case they'd manage to make some bucks of them, it goes into the city budget. No need for charity shopping.

    • I am genuinely interested, what in a toner cartridge is so hazardous that it must be recycled? Yes it will take up space in the landfill like every other piece of plastic, but as far as I know it's not like PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyl), so what's so hazardous?

      I always assume manufacturers taking used cartridges for recycling was a conspiracy to keep remanufacturers from gaining access to rebuild.

      • The remaining toner is a health hazard because it is tiny particles (similar to asbestos). It is fine once it is fused to the paper. Some cartridges also have more than just toner in them.

  • Wait until you have a bag full of them. Leave them on the curb near an art school. let someone turn them into a performance piece.

  • I've been recycling through Funding Factory [fundingfactory.com] for years. The proceeds go to the worthy recipient I designate (a school district, in my case).

    FF provides prepaid shipping labels: just tape a few boxes together, slap a label on it, and call UPS.

    The school district has garnered more than $10k over the years, which is pretty awesome for them.

    Yes, I work in a paperless office, so of course we do a LOT of printing ;-)

  • ... an outfit in Yemen that refills them and ships them back.

  • Go to the hardware store. Get some 2x4s, 2x2s and a whole lot of elastic rubber tubing. Make a really big slingshot. Shoot them at an angle where they go over your neighbors houses and land a few streets down. The houses in between will block the recipients view of the source.

  • Stop printing so much.

  • I don't know how you function in what I presume is USA but here in Poland in small to mid sized companies nobody would even consider buying general purpose office printer without knowing that there are cheap substitute toners aviable for that model. I work in small company and we only buy printers for which we can get cheap toners. And the price difference is like 1/2 (!). Right now we go only with Lexmark and annually we do a market research to emerge the cheapest company to supply us with substitute toner

    • > I don't know how you function in what I presume is USA but here in Poland in small to mid sized companies nobody would even consider buying general purpose office printer without knowing that there are cheap substitute toners aviable for that model.

      Yeeeeaaahhhh........ so,... the way it works in the USA is that toner cartridges have encrypted DRM chips and when you put in an aftermarket cartridge, or refilled cartridge, your printer shows it as empty or invalid. So if you'd just pony up for those prop

  • Sorry, but if society wanted you to recycle toner cartridges, it'd be easy, or at least take a reasonable effort, to do so. When it takes more than a reasonable effort to recycle, it's trash. (With a caveat, enumerated below.)

    I still change my own oil. And I take the old oil to any Autozone (there's one only a few blocks away) and they recycle for free. The same for car batteries. That's the way it should work.

    One question, though: If you did not expect remuneration, that is, if you just took a bunch

  • I'm perplexed by your problem. Every toner cartridge I have ever bought, both OEM and off-brand clones, have been shipped with prepaid return labels to ship the spent cartridge back to be recycled. The off-brand clones really want them since they're going to refurbish and refill them, anyway.

    The solution? Find a better toner supplier.

  • I have two Brother Laser printers. I usually buy genuine Brother refills from Amazon. They come with a postage-paid return sticker. I just put the old item in the box the new one came in, attached the sticker and drop off at Post Office. There is a sticker for UPS also.

  • You don't have to use the store credit to buy more toner cartridges, at least not if you're talking about Staples. You can instead use it to buy stuff that is discounted, which can be a good value. For example, I have bought a few Logitech M325 mice there for $10 each during the Christmas season sales.

  • Find a 100,000,000 pound counterweight, fit it to a trebuchet, and fling your cartridge into the sun my friend. Problem solved!

    I wonder if a 100 million pound weight is actually heavy enough to get the cartridge to escape velocity and into the sun's inexorable gravitational pull. It probably isn't. Oh well.

  • But recycling a toner cartridge ... well, my one is on about it's 4th or 5th refill since I brought the printer in ... 2003. When I print, it does get a bit streaky now, so I do get the feeling I need to buy a new cassette thingy. It's an LJ-2 or LJ-3 compatible, so I should be able to get a replacement.

    What's the normal lifetime for printers these decades?

    I still haven't opened the second bottle from the refill kit. Does this stuff have a shelf life, and if so, why?

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