Interview with an ink cartridge
Contents of the article
We, printer cartridges, are very useful, but we can also be much more polluting than you might imagine.
My components, released into the environment, would be very, very harmful both to your health and to the health of any other way of life.
You are an everyday object, you are in private homes, in offices, universities, schools, civic centers…, it seems that each year around 1 billion ink cartridges are used in the world, you are very useful!
Useful, a lot, no doubt, but … hold on, curves are coming.
I’m ready.
Here it goes: under an immaculate plastic casing, I usually carry a good helping of petroleum-derived oils, some sulfur, carbon, cyanides, and heavy metals like copper, iron, or barium.
Wow, are you really complex.
Yes, and contradictory. I’m sorry to say it (and that you would know), but do you know which is one of the most polluting pigments?
Lead gray, petroleum black?
Well no, it’s green because, according to German chemist Michael Braungart in The New York Times, this pigment can include anything from bromide and chlorine atoms, to cobalt, titanium, nickel or zinc oxide.
So what do you, who are an expert, recommend us to do?
To begin, place your printer in a ventilated space so as not to inhale the small particles that I am releasing while being used.
… when its useful life is over?
It is forbidden to throw myself away, mixed with an endless number of other objects and materials, which unfortunately is something that too many people still do, people who do not know to what extent it is a dangerous and polluting practice.
If they have been installed in your municipality, you will surely find an Urban Recycle Station near your home, in a central and busy square or streets with easy access.
Well then, where do I take you?
To the store where you bought me, but if you can’t, take me to a Waste Facility for recycling in your city or drop me off at a nearby Blipvert Urban Recycle Station specially designed and manufactured to contain small waste such as batteries, light bulbs or printer cartridges.
If they have been installed in your municipality, you will surely find an Urban Recycle Station near your home, in a central and busy square or streets with easy access.
Urban Recycle Station installed in Outes (A Coruña)
But what if I’m at the office?
Ideally, they should have one or more indoor recycling containers in an appropriate space, such as, for example, 60, 80 or 120 liter modulus, perfectly practical, manageable and very resistant, designed so that in your work center, institution or school there is zero waste.
Modulus – Indoor Blipvert Containers
Modulus – Separate collection containers
Modular Recycling Station – Zero waste
Thank you, we shall do so.
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