# Recycling toner cartridges

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-toner-cartridges/324744>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 4, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-toner-cartridges/324744 "2005-10-04T16:08:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-toner-cartridges/324744/1 "2005-10-04T16:08:28Z")

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HP wants you to mail them back for free, but I recently saw that a charity collecting them. Do they make money?

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-toner-cartridges/324744/2 "2005-10-04T19:10:08Z")

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The charities that collect empties get a buck or two per cartridge by sending them to companies that refill or remanufacture the cartridges and sell them. Some are even operating divisions of cartridge refillers:

> [@](#):
>
> Recycle 4 Charity was established as a fundraising program for charities, Schools, groups and organizations. Recycle 4 Charity is a division of Magnum Data Services & Supplies, a privately owned and operated business with a 15-year track record in the imaging supplies industry. We setup recycling programs for corporations…

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-toner-cartridges/324744/3 "2005-10-04T19:12:43Z")

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Forgot to say that there’s so much profit to be had by the refilling folks that they pay the shipping to get the cartridges from the charities.

Whether you send them back to HP or to a local charity, they get rebuilt. You might as well give them to the charity so they can benefit.

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**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-toner-cartridges/324744/4 "2005-10-04T19:27:31Z")

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I always assumed that HP destroyed and recycled the toner cartridges sent to it, so that there were fewer available for refilling.