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http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1675770/soy_alternative_printer_cartridges/
Soy Alternative Printer Cartridges
Soybean oil based toner may offer a cheaper, greener alternative to petroleum-based printer toner.
The
potential benefits of soy toners are clear. Soy based toners can cost
less than the standard alternative, recycling paper printed with soy
toner is easier, and soybeans are a renewable resource with a price
more stable than oil.In recent years, many newspapers, magazines, and
book publishers have shifted to soy-based ink.Early tests have shown
little to no difference between standard toners and soy
cartridges.According to Rick Greenlaw, PRC Technologies’ vice president
of marketing, his company’s goal in creating SoyPrint soy toners was to
make sure their soy product was cheaper than traditional toners.”Our
interest is in the person willing to go green as long as it doesn’t
cost them more. Period,” he said.LaserMonksGreen, a Web site
operated by Cistercian monks of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Sparta,
Wisconsin, says they make enough money selling SoyPrint toner to run
their abbey and donate other profits to world hunger charities, and
tree planting in Brazil.The group sells cartridges that fit into HP
printers at a price 20 percent lower than new HP cartridges.
Remanufactured HP cartridges can still be less expensive than SoyPrint
cartridges.Office Depot sells the Q5942X cartridge for $249, while
SoyPrint sells an alternative for $181. A remanufactured Q5942X with
petroleum-based toner can cost $120.Currently the soy toners
are only available for laser printers. A soy equivalent for ink-jet
printers has not yet been developed.Larger companies producing
petroleum-based toners have not yet began to develop alternative
cartridges. The majority of these companies make much of their profit
from ink and toner.According to a statement released by
Hewlett-Packard, bio-based materials “have not met HP’s
high-performance standards and may not be appropriate for many printing
applications.”Lexmark International, another printer maker, said they
are investigating soy and corn based resins.PRC Technologies
remains one of the primary suppliers for soy-based cartridges. The
company, which only provides cartridges for HP black-and-white
laser-jet printers, plans to expand to other printer brands this
summer, and is currently developing color cartridges.Cathy Martin, a
senior consultant with InfoTrends, questions whether buyers will trust
soy-based toners in their expensive computer hardware.According to
Wayne Boyd, a 68-year-old San Antonio resident, the lower price of
soy-based toners got him interested. Environmental concerns only
played a small role in his decision to try SoyPrint, he added.”Right
now money’s more important than the environment,” Boyd said.”You can’t
eat clean air.”http://gcn.com/articles/2009/05/04/technicalities-soy-toner.aspx
Soy, the other black ink
Soy toner could catch on in office use
Agencies
on the march to go green have another way to cut petroleum use and
enhance recycling: use soybean-oil toner for printing. In a trend that
is slowly gaining momentum, some publishers have switched to soy-based
printing, and office printing could follow.Soy cartridges cost less
than new petroleum-based cartridges, although they still cost more than
refilled regular cartridges. Soy also makes paper used for printing
easier to recycle, because the toner is easier to break down. And it’s
nutritious.On the down side, soy toner, a dry powder, only works in
laser printers, so you’re out of luck if you’re using an inkjet. And at
the moment, soy toner only comes in black.Companies such as PRC
Technologies are producing soy toner, and a major distributor is
LaserMonks.com, run by Cistercian monks in Sparta, Wis. The monks, who
also sell other merchandise, use the money to support their abbey and
donate funds to charity.Analysts say it takes about two liters of
petroleum to make a pound of toner and that U.S. public and private
organizations use about 100 million cartridges a year. Although soy
toner wouldn’t be good for all printing, there’s still a lot of room to
replace petroleum products with an environmentally friendly, renewable
resource. And when the inevitable mistake happens, it will be easier to
eat your words.
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