Recycling Epson Cartridges

Recentlly I have been trying to send off some of my empty epson Stylus Photo R200 Ink Cartridges to a charity for them to recycle. I have had great difficulty in finding companies who actually will recycle the epson cartridges.
This does not seem the case for other well known manufacturers cartridges with many charities willing to take their cartridges.
I have decided to write this page to keep track of my attempts to find somewhere to recycle the cartridges and try and find out why so many places will not take epson ones.

If any one would like to add their own comments to this then please e-mail at epson@timjenkins.co.uk
If I get time I may end up adding a messageboard where people will be able to leave their comments

15/08/2005 - Epson Incinerate Cartridges returned to them for recycling

On 13/08/2005 I emailed Epson asking about disposing of cartridges and have discovered that yes they do actually incinerate any cartridges sent back to them. They call it recycling as the cartridges are used to produce heat. Not the sort of recycling I have ever heard of but there we go. I think my method of recycling my epson cartridges will be to refill them. Below is the e-mail I sent and reply received.

E-mail sent to Epson -13/08/2005

I am looking to recycle my epson cartridges but can not find anywhere that does them. I understand that I could send them to epson but have worries about this as have read Epson does not recycle them but just burns them.If I sent my empty cartridges to epson what would happen to them?

Reply from Epson Support - 15/08/2005

Dear Tim

Thank you for contacting EPSON e-mail support.

Thank you for the opportunity to address your concerns about the environmental performance of EPSON with regard, in particular, to the recycling of ink cartridges. We wish to assure you that EPSON is doing its utmost to ensure that cartridges are recycled in an eco-efficient way.

Indeed, our collected ink and toner cartridges in the UK are currently being incinerated in a treatment facility that processes our cartridges in order to generate heat which is then recovered and converted into electricity. At present, EPSON is convinced that this is the most environmentally friendly route. In fact, the German environment agency recommends that this as an environmentally friendly recycling process.

EPSON ink cartridges are mainly composed of plastics. Most of our competitors use a printing technology whereby the print head is attached to the ink cartridge. EPSON, on the other hand, has developed a technology whereby the print head is a permanent fixture of the printer and only the changeable plastic cartridge needs to be disposed of. This significantly reduces the environmental impact of disposing of the cartridge. Considering that the recoverable value of this plastic part is very low due to the absence of the print head, we feel that the most environmentally friendly disposal route is energy generation through incineration. This has also been confirmed by our own research.

You may be interested to know that in many other fields, particularly for production methods, EPSON has won many awards for its environmental activities and awareness.

You can send in your used cartridges for recycling to:

Service Materials Management (SMM) EPSON Telford Ltd.
Hortonwood 40
Telford
Shropshire
TF1 7YD

Please note this address is not free postage.

Regards,

*Name Removed*
e-Service Support Technician
EPSON Customer Inter@ction Centre

12/08/2005 - Contacted Epson about this using their e-talk session and was told that epson will recycle the cartridges if they are sent to

Service Materials Management (SMM)
EPSON Telford Ltd.
Hortonwood 40
Telford
Shropshire
TF1 7YD

Although I will be happy to send them to Epson to be recycled I would prefer to find a charity that recycles them so that I can help them as well as just get the cartridges recycled. I am also suprised Epson do not provide a freepost address for sending cartridges to as after all you are doing them a favour by returning them as this means they don't need to manufacture the case just clean out and refil.

I have just read that Epson America have been burning the cartridges sent to them by a school collection scheme rather than recycling them. http://www.no-burn.org/action/epson.html Would this be the case if I sent to Epson UK too? Who knows but I think it's something we should all ask.

Just found something about why they don't recycle Epson cartridges on a recycling scheme Print4less website about why they don't recycle the epson cartridges the quote is below

"Q. Can all Inkjet cartridges be made into new cartridges?

A. Unfortunately not for a variety of reasons. Cartridges which do not have the printhead attached to the cartridge (e.g. Epson and some Canon cartridges) cannot be re-used. The only way they can be recycled is to be ground down into plastic chips which are then used as packing material or melted down and reformed into new shapes. Unfortunately, the recycling centre we use have recently informed us that due to the large volume of Epson cartridges they have received, they have more packing material than they can use or sell. Therefore, they are refusing to accept any more Epson cartridges. We contacted a number of other cartridge recycling companies and most have not accepted Epson cartridges for some time. This decision saddened everyone at Print4Less because we are all dedicated to recycling as much as we can. However, we do appreciate that it uses more energy to transport, sort and crush these cartridges than can be recouped by recycling. We advise that If there is a plastics recycling bin at your local refuse centre, please use it for your empty Epson cartridges instead. Your local council should have details of plastics recycling depots in your area (or try the Yellow Pages). "

This Page was Designed by Tim Jenkins