A recent survey by YouGov calculated that households could save £440m per year by avoiding branded cartridges from printer manufacturers such as Lexmark, Epson, Canon and Hewlett Packard. Typical households consume 4.85 cartridges a year, with half of the survey respondents only ever buying branded cartridges at a typical cost of £30 each. Private label cartridges branded by retailers such as WH Smith are typically 25-30% cheaper.

Two third of consumer say a cheaper price could encourage them to switch from printer manufacturers cartridges to retailers’ versions, while 43% would be motivated to switch because of environmental concerns.

Patrick Stead, founder and chief executive of Environmental Business Products, which supplies private-label cartridges to many high street retailers across Europe including Office Depot, Viking Direct and WH Smith, says “When most items in the shopping basket are rising in price, the printer cartridge is one product where there are easy savings to be made with no compromise in quality, regardless of misleading propaganda.

“Consumers don’t have to choose between price on one hand and the environment on the other,” he continues, “as remanufactured cartridges score on both counts. The only thing wrong with an empty cartridge is that it has run out of ink, so throwing millions of them in the bin every year is extremely wasteful. Remanufacturing empty cartridges is far better for the environment than sending them to landfill where they will take up to 1,000 years to degrade. It’s better to reuse than recycle in the traditional way which uses an industrial process to break a product down to constituent parts, not all of which can be re-used.”

There are actually two alternatives to branded ink cartridges, as Stinkyinks.com explains.

The first is ‘Remanufactured’ and ‘Refilled’ cartridges, which are simply different names for the same thing. These are recycled cartridges that have been collected by a third party, cleaned, refilled, and tested to ensure they meet the same standards as they did when they were first produced.

The second is a ‘Compatible’ cartridge is one that is freshly made by a third party to suit a certain type of printer. All of the components are new. Most printer manufacturers threaten to void the warranty of any machine that has been used with compatible cartridges. But it is illegal for them to actually carry out this threat, so they cannot void your warranty, or otherwise stop you from using remanufactured or compatible cartridges in products that they originally made. For more details on the differences, take a look at http://bit.ly/eiQZov

Purchasing branded or compatible cartridges through online retailers is almost invariably cheaper than through high street retailers, and members of The SME Hub get an extra 10% discount Stinkyinks.com. But this isn’t the only way to save money on printing. Other easy methods are to

• Print in Draft where possible
• Print in Duplex if possible – even some cheaper printers have this facility
• Wait until your ink runs out before actually replacing the ink cartridge
• Re-use paper when printing draft – provided it’s not creased or damaged
• Before you buy a new printer, consider the running costs in terms of consumables.
• Ink evaporates, so ensure your printer is not located in a hotspot.
• Don’t open cartridge wrappers until you actually need to use them
• Beware the hidden costs of shipping if buying from an online retailer
• Ensure you use the right settings on your PC/Printer for the type of paper that you are using
• Be aware that each time you turn your printer off and on it carries out a head clean which uses ink
   

Members of The SME Hub can buy branded or compatible ink cartridges at a 10% discount on (already very competitive) online prices at http://bit.ly/f5INo1