Lexmark International, a global imaging solutions leader, has a print cartridge recycling programme, The Lexmark Cartridge Collection Programme (LCCP), which has picked up speed in South Africa, over 60 000 cartridges have been collected and recycled over the past year.
The programme is voluntary and enables Lexmark customers to contribute to an environmentally friendly initiative where all types of Lexmark print and toner cartridges are collected by the company for free for total recycling.
"The programme has been running for the past year and has been a great success," says Nathan Nayagar, Managing Director of Lexmark South Africa and English speaking Africa. "This global initiative is one step closer to achieving a circular economy that will eventually minimise resource input, waste, emissions and energy leakage."
Lexmark collects on average 4 000 cartridges per month, all of which are 100% recyclable, which is critical when you consider the fact that it takes 1 000 years for the average print/toner cartridge to decompose in a landfill.
According to an article by The Energy Collective 37 million ink cartridges are thrown away every year. While this is a global figure, it clearly showcases room for improvement when we consider that South Africa lags behind developed nations when it comes to recycling.
"There is always room for growth, and while locally, the LCCP is still in its early days, our growth rate has been satisfying." Nayagar also believes the programme's success is because of the easy way it works. "All willing participants needs to do is sign in and register a Lexmark account, from there a special container will be delivered to our client's offices that will store all types of empty Lexmark toner and ink cartridges, when it is full simply get hold us online, via our app or even give us a call."
Lexmark Cartridge Collection Programme - Fast Facts
* 1 cartridge collected every four seconds.
* In 2014 alone, Lexmark customers returned up to 50% of the total toner cartridges shipped to them.*
* Since 1996, Lexmark has reused over 21 million kg of recovered
cartridge material by converting millions of used toner cartridges.*
* Recycling a used Lexmark toner cartridge reduces it total carbon footprint by more than 50% (Lexmark Lifecycle Assessment).*
*Source: Lexmark CSR report 2014
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