Aussie firm ‘recycles millions of printer cartridges’

Millions of printer cartridges are recycled each year at an Australian company which has drop-off points across the country.

Close the Loop operates 43,000 locations for dropping off printer cartridges and recycles a total of 13 million annually, ABC Canberra reports.

Used printer cartridges are also received from office machines in firms located as far away as Asia.

In a recent report by the news provider, chief executive operator Greg Turnidge gave a reporter a tour of the recycling plant, demonstrating how both inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges are managed during the process.

He also explained how plant employees’ health is protected via the extraction of toner dust from the workplace by large fans.

"Toner dust is a very difficult material to manage. As you can see it becomes ambient. It’s a very fine substance and we have to be careful in the way we process it so we don’t end up with issues in the plant," Mr Turnidge commented.

All the printer cartridges which come in to the plant are logged in a computer system and sorted.

Recently, a Spanish business discussed how it had developed machines to refill printer cartridges, which could be placed in public spaces such as shopping centres.

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