*NEWS*EU: PRINTER PARTS"MUST BE REUSABLE"

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Date: Tuesday April 19, 2005 11:24:00 am
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  • Anonymous
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    Euro printer parts ‘must be reusable’

    The European Parliament wants printer makers to manufacture reusable and
    recyclable printer ink cartridges, and to refrain from forcing consumers to buy
    their own-brand refills. The Parliament voted on Wednesday to ratify the Waste
    Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, which includes provisions
    requiring companies to make their products easier to reuse and recycle.

    The directive includes a “product design” provision aimed at preventing
    printer manufacturers from using technology in printer ink cartridges to keep
    them from being recycled or reused by refilling the cartridge with ink.
    Manufacturers used these “clever chips” to get around recycling rules, the
    Parliament said.

    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.

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