Cartridges Collect A Bounty

Sydney Morning Herald

Sunday May 31, 1992

By SUE LOWE

WATCH your laser printer closely. And whenever the spent cartridge indicator lights, make sure you are first there.

As of last Wednesday every recyclable spent toner cartridge is worth $10. If it is a Gestetner recyclable cartridge it will be worth $15. The bounty was announced by Gestetner last week to speed the return of recyclable cartridges to its newly opened Boomerang recycling plant.

If all new cartridges Gestetner manufactured in a year were returned the rewards would amount to $4 million a year. Blowing this budget is not something the company worries about, however. According to the general manager, John Sprouster, the biggest problem the company has is getting used cartridges back. He claimed that more than 500,000 cartridges, 500 tonnes, ends up as landfill every year.

Gestetner's plant has maximum capacity to cope with only a fraction of that- 5,000 per month - but the company anticipates it will take time to ramp up returns to achieve even that capacity.

Gower Smith, the developer of the recycling program, said the main problem was that very few organisations have a serious collection and recycling program in place. Gestetner is welcoming calls on its hotline (toll-free 008 023 357) from employees who suspect their companies are not recycling cartridges.

To further minimise the effort of recycling, Gestetner is also laying on both pre-paid return cartons and recycling couriers. The latter can be called(on the number above) whenever a cartridge is to be returned. Gestetner is claiming Australia-wide coverage through its office network and courier system.

Rewards can also be taken in cash or as credit against replacement cartridges.

Most important is that Gestetner guarantees its remanufactured cartridges will equal the quality of virgin cartridges. Costs are also claimed to be about 20 per cent below imported cartridges. With the rewards, Gestetner calculates this represents a 50 per cent saving on laser-printer running costs.

The Boomerang plant employs 48 people and if it is fed enough waste to achieve its plans, is destined to eliminate a large slice of the $50 million currently spent on imported cartridges.