Printer Cartridges Recycle, Reuse, and Re-manufacture: Printers have become essential for personal as well as commercial usage. Children, local shopkeepers and large corporations use them for various purposes.Cartridges, which are the exhaustible component of printers, generate a huge amount of electronic waste. In addition, virgin cartridges are expensive, but there is an alternative...
Printer Cartridges Recycle, Reuse, and Re-manufacture: Printers have become essential for personal as well as commercial usage. Children, local shopkeepers and large corporations use them for various purposes.
Cartridges, which are the exhaustible component of printers, generate a huge amount of electronic waste. In addition, virgin cartridges are expensive, but there is an alternative - recharging the same cartridge with new toner or ink. Refilling or recharging of cartridges is technologically simple and is preferred by rechargers.
Recharging however is not accepted well by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of cartridges. They assert that refilled cartridges are not on par with virgin cartridges and in the event of a malfunction, the OEM would be held responsible. In today's time, with increasing environmental pollution, reusing and recycling have become the need of the hour.
Re-manufacturing is a kind of product recovery process, where used and discarded cartridges may be subjected to a series of activities so as to transform them into reusable ones. This not only has a tremendous environmental benefit but has now also become an extremely profitable and booming business.
There are a number of factors to be considered in case of recycling because certain cartridges cannot be effectively re-manufactured. When cartridges cannot be recycled or re-manufactured, they are simply collected and dumped due to the lack of adequate disposal facilities.
The individual purchaser generally recycles for his or her own use, which does not raise any issue. However, if the purpose is commercial in nature, then it raises several contentious issues concerning the intellectual property and other rights of the OEM.
If the cartridges are being disposed off or recycled, it is important to comply with environment protection laws. Compliance with recycling norms varies from nation to nation, depending on the products and also varies from OEMs to rechargers and aftermarket suppliers. Considering the vicissitude of the global environment, governments like the European Union have adopted policies that deal with waste related to electrical and electronic equipment. India too has, in 2011, introduced a new law to deal with electronic waste, which becomes effective in 2012.
The E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2010 (the Rules) under the Environment Protection Act, 1986:
In India, the Environment Protection Act, 1986 (the Environment Protection Act) tackles issues related to pollution and gives an omnibus power to the Central Government to take all such actions as it deems essential or expedient for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing, controlling and reducing pollution. The Rules, which were notified in May 2011 and become effective May 1, 2012, apply to every producer, consumer or bulk consumer involved in the manufacture, sale and purchase and processing of electrical and electronic equipment or components as per the list in Schedule I. This list includes printer and cartridges.
A recycler needs to register with the State Pollution Control Board and obtain authorization as provided in the Rules. Also, the recycler’s facility and recycling process should conform to the standards laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board and should provide for appropriate mechanisms to dispose off hazardous waste.
The recycler is required to make available all its records to the Central and State Pollution Control Board or the Pollution Control Committee of Union Territories for inspection as and when required and must file annual returns appropriately with the State Pollution Control Board or Pollution Control Committee, on or before 30th June, following the financial year to which those returns relate. In view of this, there will now be heightened regulatory compliance check on cartridge recyclers.
The Rules are a significant step towards sustainable development. They have an impact on the regulations of the management of information and communication technology waste on environment and climate change. The Rules have taken on the global framework of e-waste management by incorporating extended producer responsibility and reduction of hazardous substance compliance in electronic manufacturing. The Rules identify and categorize e-waste by distinguishing between information technology, telecom equipment, and consumer electrical and electronics. Additionally, the governing authority is decentralized by vesting enforcement powers in state-level pollution control boards.
There are several key parameters that need review. The most important issues are the integration of the informal sector in the collection, segregation and dismantling of e-waste; no prohibitions on imports of metal scrap and electronic goods for recycling; and historic waste and disposal mechanisms required to deal with them.
In India, there are many small and medium scale industries that deal with the re-manufacturing and recycling of printer cartridges. The responsibility of this industry and its impact on the environment should be communal, i.e., the government, corporate houses, manufactures and consumers as stake holders should encourage recycling and remanufacturing in order to ensure least damage to the environment.
Disclaimer: Views of the author are personal and do not reflect the views of the firm.