Using data from product Life Cycle Assessments, this paper has demonstrated that in order to effectively address today’s sustainability challenges, product environmental policy for toner and inkjet cartridges must consider a wide range of product attributes and life cycle impacts beyond just the potential benefits of materials reuse. The main conclusions from this paper are:
The quality and reliability of print cartridges as well as how they are handled at final end-of-life are the most important factors that determine the overall life cycle environmental impact because issues with print quality will increase paper consumption.
Life cycle assessments show that third party remanufactured and refilled print cartridges are not environmentally preferable to original OEM cartridges.