OEM’s return and recycling programme encourages customers to return used cartridges to HP.
In another example of OEMs’ attempts to prevent the remanufacturing of cartridges, Malaysian news website Bernama.com has reported that HP has introduced a return and recycle programme, HP Planet Partners, that sees its customers being urged to return used cartridges to the manufacturer for recycling, further reducing opportunities for remanufacturers of used printer cartridges.
The OEM says that the programme will “further reduce” its environmental impact by ensuring that cartridges are returned for recycling instead of being sent to landfills, with Martin Tan, Market Development Manager, Inkjet and Web Solutions, Printing and Personal System Group at HP Malaysia citing the OEM’s HP 46 ink cartridge as being “designed to produce-yield while retaining a compact size and contain[ing] up to 60 percent recycled content”.
Tan also added that by using HP’s Ink Advantage all-in-one printers means that “students, families and businesses no longer need to deal with the risks and hassles of failed jobs and messy ink spills when using non-HP supplies”.
The Recycler has reported on numerous tactics adopted by OEMs to prevent their cartridges from being remanufactured and to dissuade consumers from purchasing non-OEM branded cartridges, including manufacturing cartridges in a “maze-like” way to make them difficult or impossible to refill, as described by CBR’s Fredy Gass during his recent TV appearance; and initiating pop-ups in their printer driver software warning customers when they are using a non-OEM cartridge and even preventing them from continuing their print job, which has seen Environmental Business Products developing their own Helpful Printer Driver to counteract the problem.