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How To Recycle Ink Cartridges for Cash? Learn Here

If you print a lot, you might have many inks or toner cartridges laying waste in a box.

These empty cartridges are useless and become an environmental hazard unless you recycle them for reuse.

With little effort, not only can you recycle these cartridges but can earn some easy cash with these empty cartridges.

In this article, we will look at a common query: how to recycle ink cartridges for cash.

Basically, you can sell the inks cartridges on ebay, use online services, or find a local dealer who accepts ink cartridges for cash.

Before we get into the bottom of our topic, let’s see why it is important to recycle these ink cartridges.

Recycling Ink Cartridges

recycling ink cartridges

Recycling ink cartridges prevent these empty cartridges from ending up in our landfills.

Millions of people buy ink cartridges around the world. Only in America, about 500 million ink cartridges are sold each year according to Earth911.com, and most of them end up being thrown as trash.

These cartridges are made of plastic that is not going to degrade or decompose with time and will be staying on this earth, polluting the environment.

Plus we are using a lot of energy in manufacturing these cartridges. A lot of fuel is burnt annually just to make these ink cartridges.

So why waste them when you can re-utilize them again with little effort.

It is our combined responsibility to either turn them over to any organization that would recycle them ultimately or better to recycle them yourself.

You can save a lot of bucks by refilling these ink cartridges and can even make some easy cash selling them.


How to Recycle Ink Cartridges for Cash?

You can get some cash with these cartridges in many ways.

1. Sell These Ink Cartridges

An easy way to make some cash is to sell these empty ink cartridges. If you don’t have time and energy to refill these ink cartridges, collect them in a box and when you have them in bulk sell them.

You can sell them on e-bay or other such stores and get some cash. Most of the the times, the place where you buy the ink/printer from will have the facility to buy used cartridges as well.

If not, then the local vendors will at least guide you to someone who buys inks for cash.

In fact, you can start up your own business as well. If you work in a large office that throws away ink cartridges or toners regularly, you can save them up and sell them for a fairly good profit.

Another great way on how to recycle ink cartridges for cash is to use an online service.

There are online services as well that can buy your used ink cartridges. Services like:

For storing the ink cartridges, make sure to wrap them in a newspaper and store in their own boxes or a ziplock bag.

2. Refill Ink Cartridges
refill ink kits

Another way to look at “how to recycle ink cartridge for cash” is to consider refilling them for yourself.

If you are planning on buying a new cartridge, why not reuse your old one yourself and thus end up saving up on cash?

You can also refill these ink cartridges at home and reuse them or can even sell them too. For this purpose, refilling kits are available.

Refilling ink cartridges can be messy. But you can do it at home with some care and save a lot of money that goes in buying new ink cartridges.

For this purpose, you can use a refilling kit or simply take a syringe with a small needle.

You will also need new ink that is also easily available from the market, or you can order online.

Related: How To Get More Ink Out Of A Cartridge

General Guidelines on How to Refill
  • You will notice a sticker on your ink cartridge, and it has a black mark. Beneath this mark is the hole for refilling ink.
  • Peel off the sticker and inject the ink inside cartridge with the help of syringe.
  • Don’t let any air in, injecting the ink slowly can also cause air gaps in the cartridge. Make sure to inject quickly as the air can cause trouble while printing.
  • Keep a paper towel or any cloth underneath as you can spill ink.
  • Also, make sure you fill the same colored ink in the cartridge. For example if the cartridge had yellow ink it should be refilled only with yellow ink.
  • Fill the ink to near capacity not full.
  • After refilling, allow ink to settle down in the sponge hidden in the bottom of the ink cartridge.
  • Cover the hole back with a sticker or tape.
  • Make sure to reset the ink cartridge from your printer’s setting.
3. Go to a Refilling Center

If filling up at home seems too much for you to handle, you can simply collect the ink cartridges and store them properly at home.

When you have enough, just go to a refilling center, and they will refill the cartridges more professionally. Recycle the empty cartridges and use it at home or sell these cartridges to others as well.

Related: Original Vs Compatible Vs Remanufactured Ink Cartridges Explained

4. Local Recycling Facility

If all else fails, just go to the nearest local recycling facility. You may be surprised to find that some recycling facilities can pay for your trash if they find it valuable.

To find the recycling center near you, visit: Earth911.com

Related: What Are Remanufactured Ink Cartridges?


Conclusion

Ink Cartridges are expensive and throwing the empty cartridges is simply horrible for the environment.

So why not hit two birds with one stone: make money from your used cartridges as well as reduce the waste by recycling it?

As such, in this article we learned about how to recycle ink cartridges for cash.

You can sell these empty cartridges or can reuse these ink cartridges at home for saving money. If you follow the instruction carefully, you can refill these cartridges many times.

The cartridges with big names usually come with only half of the capacity and won’t last long. Refilling yourself will keep them in working condition for long.

So save up on money and save your environment.

Related: Is It Safe To Use Compatible Ink Cartridges?