Make money recycling Laser and Ink Cartridges

The green movement in this country is more "fashionable" and the "right thing to do" today than it was 10 years ago.

Recycling empty toner and ink cartridges can grow from a "on the side" business to a full time endeavor with very little start up money if any at all in some cases.

Individuals, business, government, and schools are more conscientious about the environment today than ever and are prime targets for recycling empty cartridges. There is a strong movement to "do your part" to save the environment whether it be light bulbs, batteries, paper, plastics, oil, glass, etc...

First, a few facts..

1. - 80% of plastics thrown away can be recycled. There is a about a 25-30% recovery rate
2. - Industry sources says 300+ million cartridges are not recycled each year
3. - It is estimated that 1 landfilled cartridge has a decomposition life of 450-1000 years-
4. - There are over 1500 entrepreneurial plastic recyclers today-
5. - It takes approximately 2 pints of oil to make one brand new toner shell.

OK, How do I get started?

Industry lingo for empty laser and ink cartridges are called cores. There are 2 types of cores. One type is called a "virgin" core. These have the most value. They are brand new genuine cartridges from the name brand manufacturers like HP Lexmark, Canon, Dell etc.. Brand name cores in this industry are called OEM (original equipment manufacturer)

The second type are "non virgin cores." These have been refilled at least once by a re-manufacturer and do not have empty value, generally speaking.

What I mean by value, the empty core prices fluctuate month to month and are based on a few large empty brokers in the USA who buy  these empties from recyclers, clean them, test them, and repackage them  The price is based on basic economics-Supply and Demand.

Once they have been cleaned, tested and repackaged, they are sold to re-manufacturers who in turn refill them and sell them to jobbers,wholesalers, and retail outlets with their own private "generic or compatible" label for public consumption. Most refills are at least 50% cheaper than "genuine" cartridges of the same model. The other side of the coin is that the refilled cartridges have a higher defective rate than OEM's.

If you are interested in recycling, I am going to get you excited for just a moment.

Go to Ebay and in the search box type in empty cartridge. Scroll down through the auctions and look at the kind of money some of these cartridges are bringing-keep in mind these are empty and are being thrown away all over our country. I went to completed auctions and below and to the right is a link to show you what these cartridges are bringing on the open market.

Let me describe what you are looking at in this auction and how it breaks down.

This auction is for 28 HP virgin empty ink cartridges. There are 10 HP#57's (blue tops) and 18 HP#56's (gray tops).

If you were to send these virgin cores back to a major recycler, he would pay you at today's price of $6.50 for each "blue top," and $1.75 for each "gray top."Beats aluminum cans. You would receive a check back from the recycler for $96.50 for these empties. Selling them on Ebay you grossed $97.77. Ebay sounds like the better deal and in some cases it is and other times it isn't. Let me explain.

1. Selling to a recycler takes about 45 days to get your money once your product arrives at their facility. You will receive the gross amount of $96.50 if there are no discrepancies(I will talk about that later).
2. Selling on Ebay, you can instantly get your money via Paypal minus fees. If we use the $97.77 auction price, you can expect to have approximately 11-13% in fees subtracted from this gross amount. Going with the higher figure you would approximately gross net $85.
3. Paypal fees are approximately 3% on average and ebay gets between 8.5%-10%
4. Gross net $85.00 means you haven't subtracted the cost of goods sold. How much did you pay your client for these empty inkjets? For the sake of an argument you paid 25% or 1/4 the value of the blue top empty value of $6.50. That would equal about $1.65 you would pay for each of these blue top cartridges. Keep in mind your client was throwing them away and now is making money for her trash! You would pay your client approximately $24.00 and you would net about $61.00.
5. Most large recyclers of empties will pay for your shipping to their plant if you have a combined minimum of 250 laser and ink cartridges. They will send you a prepaid UPS or Fedex label. You will box up the cartridges carefully so as not to break any during shipment and apply the label and send it on its way.
6. Some of the larger companies will provide you with collection boxes, fund raiser material and templates that will help your customer design fliers for their fundraiser.
   

Discrepancies and what it means.

If you ship your empties to a recycler, upon receiving them they are going to remove them from the box and clean the contacts and "test" them to see if they work. The contact is the thin copper strip, that controls the flow of ink and interprets printer commands. If the contacts are bumped, torn or scratched, then they are discarded as defective. You can't protest the discrepancy report because you have no proof that he is fudging the numbers if you haven't tested them personally. You have to take their word. Most major recyclers are honest and fair and don't tamper with the testing procedure.

If you are still interested....I will share with you now how to acquire empty ink cartridges

BTW, I have only been discussing empty inkjets, there is an empty laser cartridge scenario, much like the empties but with variables that need to be considered, but I will get to that later.As my title says, "How to make money by asking for them." is the way you acquire empty inkjets. Ask and you shall receive.

There are a couple of angles when asking someone for their empties.

1. If you are doing it to make money for yourself-then you will go into a place of business and say something like this. "Hello, my name is Bob and I am not here to sell you something, I would like to buy something from you." Outside of the person being deaf, you will have their immediate attention 99% of the time. They will answer, "go on, I am listening" or "what could I possibly have that you would want to buy?"
   
2. You would go into detail with your pitch by telling them that you buy empty toner and ink cartridges and pay cash for them- "Do you have printer(s)? If you do, then you must have empties, right?" Go on to say, "There are hundreds of empty virgin cartridges that have value and if you have the right ones then I will pay cash for them." They will either tell you or show you what they are using and then you can pull out your price list (which I will share with you later) and give them a price on the value of their "trash."
3. Here is another approach. Let's say you are collecting empties for your church trip for your youth group. You go in with the same approach but explain in your pitch that this is for your church and ask if they would like to contribute cartridges to your recycling drive. For the most part, people will gladly give you their ink and laser cartridges rather than ask for money since it is going for a good cause.

You can gravitate to the best approach based on the success you are having. Know it, Polish it, and then share it.

Lets talk about Laser Cartridges

These animals are much larger than ink cartridges. These cartridges weigh any where from 1lb-8lb's empty. They take up much more room and harder to manage if you have a large pickup and not a large enough vehicle to manage them all. Don't concern yourself at this point over this matter but it is something you should prepare yourself for.

There are more laser printers in commercial locations than there are ink cartridge printers. The opposite is true if you are talking about ink cartridges which are found in abundance in private residences, college dorms.

Laser cartridge values have been on the rise for the last 9-12 months. Below are some pictures of HP laser cartridges. I have posted the value of these 2 HP cartridges as examples of high demand empties and the price they command in the market place.

Price fluctuations and what to expect

First of all you can expect fluctuations as I stated earlier. Recycling empties are recognized as a commodity driven by supply and demand in the market place. When a printer comes on to the market and begins to have great success in sales then the only cartridges available to the end user is OEM's which are quite expensive.

There is an immediate demand from re-manufacturers to purchase these empties to be refilled and returned to the market place at considerable savings to the end user.

Lexmark, Canon, IBM and Dell are other manufacturers that have laser cartridges that are in high demand by re-manufacturers.

Reputable Brokers on line

There are 2 brokers who I highly recommend and are some of the biggest brokers in the US. These companies are honest, straightforward and are dependable.

Opra Recycling.com

ERS-USA Recycling.com

They both have sales staffs that sell empties and a staff of buyers who purchase empties.

Go to the site and you will see a "buy back" price list that they pay recyclers for their empty cartridges.