The survey of European office workers found that many have next to no idea about the use, cost or quality of laser printer supplies.
The Lexmark survey, which questioned office workers across Europe, found “knowledge to be very low” regarding laser printer supplies, noting that “common beliefs and misconceptions” were widely held by those surveyed, including those thinking they would have to pay to recycle cartridges.
Lexmark notes that the “better insight” into capabilities that should be available to those surveyed would allow “more informed decisions” about buying products, saving users money and time. Among the most startling statistics were that 75 percent “don’t know how many pages their printer cartridge should print”, and 28 percent believing they must “pay themselves to recycle an empty toner cartridge”.
Other findings included 84 percent of those surveyed having “no idea how many more pages they can print” after a low toner warning appears, as well as 50 percent believing that “the more expensive the toner cartridge, the higher the print cost per page”. Three out of five of the office workers asked also stated that they believe the quality of printing “goes down the less toner there is in the cartridge”.
Lexmark responded to the idea of poorer quality in comparison to toner levels by adding that “the cartridge will require a shake or two for best results” after a low toner warning, also advocating its own Unison toner, which features a “shake free system” and can “reveal the exact number of pages that can still be printed”.
Moving on from this, the OEM added that “some toner may be lost” in swapping to a new cartridge too soon, but added “this is not true for all printers”, with its own able to “analyse printing habits” and “better calculate the number of remaining pages that can be printed”. It also debunked the idea that cost per page increases with cartridge pricing, adding that “the higher the price of the toner cartridge for a specific printer segment, in general the greater number of printed pages that can be produced and the lower the overall cost per page”.
The survey was compiled from asking 664 office workers from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK, with the results collected this year.
Danny Molhoek, General Manager at Lexmark UK and Ireland, said of the results: “Our survey shows that many people have little knowledge of what they can expect from their printer supplies and several misconceptions about capabilities and costs.
“Whilst some of these may have been true in the past, technology as ever is advancing. Cost per page is getting lower whilst the yield, reliability and sustainability of products is increasing all the time.”
What do you think about these findings? What do you believe could or needs to be done to improve public knowledge about supplies, in particular recycling cartridges? Contact The Recycler by commenting below or emailing us at news@therecycler.com.