Adventures in Saving the Planet

As you might know, I try very hard to do my part in saving the planet.  I know I could be better at certain things…i.e. I rely on my car waaayy too much, purchase more organic food options, compost, buy more organic clothing, etc., but I think I do pretty well in other areas.  For instance, I use eco-friendly and chemical-free cleaning options (99% of the time – sometimes you need the chemical power, but not too often), I cloth-diaper my daughter, the disposable diapers and wipes that I do use are eco-friendly versions, we recycle as much as we can here, I buy organic food when the price is comparable or when it’s something that I feel I should purchase the organic version (with some foods it’s more important to buy the organic version and some you can relax with), but I really do a lot of research on eco-friendly product options how to live greener.

Well…there is one area of my life that made me feel so guilty in how I do things, so I decided to do something about it.  Ready to hear what it is?  It’s gonna blow your mind.  Here we go.  PRINTER INK. Yeah.  If you’re like me, you go through a lot of printer ink with your projects.  In design school, it was horrible.  I would always have to make sure to have a few cartridges on hand, because when you’re printing all of the photos of products and reports/schedules for a project, I’d always go through a lot of ink.  I go through a lot now with photocopying and printing projects for clients.  And it can get expensive.  But you have to have a printout with perfect colors because otherwise it really looks unprofessional.

I have a simple Hewlett Packard printer/scanner/copier that holds 2 cartridges; a black one and a tri-color.  It has served its purpose well for me, but each cartridge is about $15.  And they really don’t last that long.  Plus keeping a big stash to recycle is a pain.  So what did I do about?  I finally decided to dive into the world of refilling my own printer cartridges.  With anything you search for on Google, there are videos and how-to instructions about accomplishing this task.  Looked easy enough.  Then you can shop and compare prices.  Like most of my office supplies, I bought a set of refills off of eBay; I do this because the prices are almost always lower than anywhere else, and they seriously arrive within a day or two.  No Staples or Office Depot for me to pop in to around here – I use eBay.  I’ve bought clipboards, file folders, hanging folders, pens, scissors, and now printer ink refills on eBay. If you click on the pictures you’ll see who I bought them from.

A black-ink refill kit and a tri-color refill kit, specific to my printer cost $10 with shipping and everything.  I saved $20 and some plastic right there.  Yes, I know that having things shipped to your house isn’t so eco-friendly (shipping truck emissions, etc.), but I try to buy in bulk whenever I can to help with this.  I didn’t this time – I wanted to make sure it worked first – and I am very happy with how it all turned out, so I will be purchasing more kits in bulk next time – at least 3 or 4 of each.  But I did buy both cartridges from the same eBay seller so that they’d be shipped in the same box.

Anyway on to my “Adventures in Saving the Planet.”  The videos make refilling your own ink cartridges look easy peasy.  It is, but as with most of my projects, my rookie attempt goes awry.  My cartridges come in the mail, and I finally have a chance to sit down and get it done.  I cut the packaging open, and cut right through the directions.  Not good.  I piece them back together, and realize there is a perforated tab on the back to prevent this.  Oops.  I finally figure out what I’m supposed to be doing and start with blue (or cyan) on the color cartridge.  I pull the stopper off the top of the syringe and blue ink squirts all over my desk and all over my hands.  I look down at my clothes…I’m clean – woo-hoo!  Do not squeeze the bottle while taking the top off.  I run and get some paper towels and clean up my desk, but my hands are now covered in blue spots.  Oh well.  I put the syringe into the correct hole and squeeze.  Nothing happens.  I pull it out a little and no ink will go into the cartridge.  After trying for a few minutes I decide to let my handyman try it with his magic touch instead.  I take the baby from him, put her to bed and when I come back I have a fully-inked cartridge – all 3 colors (cyan, magenta and yellow are done!) woo-hoo!  Thanks, honey.  He thinks that I was pushing it too far in.  Who knows!  I replace the sticker on the top with the new one that they provide (you gotta cover the holes) and the other plus is that there is still ink leftover in the refills.  So technically I saved at least $50, not $20.

I try my hand out with the black one and I get it done – ALL BY MYSELF!  I run the printer diagnostics on the computer to clean the cartridges, line them up, etc….I hadn’t done this for awhile (if ever) anyway – just to make sure they’re running smoothly.  I print a test page with something I had to print anyway.  Black prints great, but the colors don’t look right – mostly the greens.  Hmm…I run another test page and it still isn’t right.  Here is where I’m cursing that I wasted money with this and now I can’t print what I need to, and give up and go to bed.  The next night, I run a couple a couple color copies of some things I needed, but I stay away from the ones with green in them.  They look great.  After trying the non-green ones, I get the courage to see how the green looks.  Crossing my fingers and… it worked perfectly!!  I’m assuming it just needed a little time to saturate itself or something, but my first attempt at refilling my own ink cartridges was definitely successful!!  Except for the blue fingers.

Am I late on this one, or do any of you refill your own printer cartridges?  I love that I saved so much money and plastic…plus I love a little DIY project – even if it does take a couple attempts to get it right.  What else do you do to help reduce waste???

(images via eBay seller, linked to sources)