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Rise up against ink waste
Printer manufacturers must be held accountable for ink replacement policies that are far from green
When
it comes to high tech, rarely is anything repaired. The same goes for
consumer electronics, as both industries have been componentized at
nearly every level of manufacturing. When something breaks, just throw
it away and plug in another component.
A
nice little revenue model for manufacturers — one that, if you are not
paying close enough attention, could end up costing you more.
For
example, when my first VHS player broke down after the warranty period,
I was told by the manufacturer that it didn’t pay to fix the device.
However, a friend who put a scope over the ICs found the dead chip,
bought a new one in Radio Shack for under $1, and put my tape player
back in business.My guess, and my electronically inclined friend’s
guess, was that this chip didn’t just accidentally burn out. It was
manufactured for a certain number of hours of use and then, Good bye,
Charlie.We are now seeing variations on this theme, especially in the
highly competitive printer industry. So componentized is this industry,
that you can buy an ink-jet printer for less than $50 or a laser
printer for less than $75. I paid $40 for my latest Samsung laser
printer, an energy-efficient model to boot.As for ink-jet printers, my
latest model signals when ink is low and stops working altogether when
out of ink. How does it know when this happens? A small sensor in the
cartridge monitors the ink levels.
The question is, How much ink remains in the cartridge when the sensor decides it is empty?
Is
it like when a laser printer tells you your toner is low? Most people
know that when you get this message all you have to do is remove the
toner cartridge, shake it back and forth a bunch of times, and put it
back in the laser printer. Lo and behold, you get another hundred pages
out of that cartridge, if not more.But it is even worse with ink-jets.
My printer manufacturer does not allow me to buy ink refills; so I
can’t just open up the cartridge and refill the ink. Even if I could,
the sensor indicator cannot be reset to indicate a full cartridge, so
refilling it would be pointless. If I could refill the cartridge and
reset the sensor, I could save a lot of money, meaning the manufacturer
would make less, of course.Instead I have to spend about $28 for a new
color cartridge. Worse, the latest ink-jet models don’t have separate
cartridges. I suppose high tech, the industry that invented
componentization, feels it has the right to take it back when it suits
them. So now most of the latest ink cartridges are all-in-one affairs.
If one color runs out, you need to replace the entire cartridge.This is
most “ungreen.” Manufacturers might say they are producing
energy-efficient products, but they are also quite wasteful. Instead of
letting you use the same nonbiodegradable plastic container, most would
rather have you toss it out and buy a new one. It is time for printer
manufacturers to stop this practice — even if we have to force their
hand a bit.In the spirit of revolution, I recommend that consumers of the world rise up and unite against printer cartridge waste.
Here’s
how. I am asking everyone with an ink-jet printer to conduct an
experiment and report back to the manufacturers . When your printer
signals that your cartridge is out of ink, open up the cartridge and
see what’s left. Send the manufacturer the printer model number, as
well as the ink status.
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