The aim of the directive is to compel member states to minimize the disposal
by consumers of so-called electroscrap as unsorted municipal waste. The European
Union wants to ensure that IT and telecommunications equipment, such as computer
mainframes, minicomputers, PCs and notebooks, and peripherals including
printers, can be reused or recycled in some manner if possible.
Printer companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Canon, and Lexmark
International may suffer financially from such a law – revenues from nonreusable
cartridges could be significantly affected.
The Parliament’s directive also calls for printer companies to build
technical design features into printer ink cartridges at the production stage
that allows for the dismantling and recovery of the used cartridges for reuse.