The Ink Cartridge Homecoming Project, launched in April 2008, is a cooperative effort by six OEMs and the Japan Post Group to collect used ink cartridges. The project was started with the belief that companies marketing inkjet printers have a social responsibility to recycle used ink cartridges and should work towards the creation of a recycling-based society through conservation efforts.
Every six months, the project will make a donation to UNEP of three yen (2p) for every ink cartridge returned. The Japanese are encouraged to place cartridges in any one of the 3,639 collection boxes at post offices and some local government offices in Japan.
The six OEMs are asking their customers to help promote ink cartridge collection and recycling in an effort to contribute to society through donations to support UNEP’s environmental conservation activities.
The donations will support various activities such as global warming, climate change, threats to biodiversity and the efficient use of resources.
By providing indirect assistance to UNEP activities, including forest protection and biodiversity conservation, the project will attain a higher level of social significance and take an increasingly active approach in global environmental protection.
This may be all for a good cause, but remanufacturers say that reusing the cartridge is a lot cheaper than recycling it.
The Ink Cartridge Homecoming Project’s UNEP donation activities will be featured at the Ink Cartridge Homecoming Project booth during the Interactive Fair for Biodiversity, which will be held concurrently with the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10) in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, from October 11 to 29, 2010.