Ink cartridge recycling to raise £5 million for schools

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 8 Mar 2010 at 17:00

An environmental group has launched a scheme to raise money for schools by recycling old ink cartridges and mobile phones.

The Support Your School programme - being run by Environmental Business Products (EBP) - aims to reduce the number of these items ending up in landfills by 10%, and raise £5 million for UK schools.

Each participating school will be paid £1 per ink cartridge and £3 per mobile phone submitted for recycling.

Each year, millions of empty inkjet cartridges are thrown into the rubbish, ending up in landfills or incinerators

Recycling ink cartridges has become an increasingly popular method for schools and charities to raise funds, and it has been estimated by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that more than 35 million inkjet cartridges are thrown out each year.

Reusing an ink cartridge five times saves an estimated three litres of oil, the EBP claimed. In addition, the 10% target would mean a reduction of 20,000 to 28,000 tons in the amount of plastic sent to landfills each year.

“Each year, millions of empty inkjet cartridges are thrown into the rubbish, ending up in landfills or incinerators,” said the Support Your School Programme Manager, Allison Parkes.