CompAndSave is aiming to collect and recycle 10,000 cartridges by May 2016, and donate “every cent” to the Food for the Poor non-profit organisation.
In a press release, the cartridge retailer stated its support for the food organisation “by donating all funds raised from their printer cartridge recycling programme” launched earlier this month. The fundraising aims to “help provide meals to the hungry as well as provide an eco-friendly recycling option for empty printer cartridges”.
Customers and the general public are being asked to post cartridges to the company’s headquarters in Newark, California, from which the cartridges will be sent to e-waste recycler GreenHippo.com in Los Angeles. The cartridges will be recycled there and the money given to CompAndSave, which will “donate 100 percent of these proceeds to Food for the Poor”. A slogan and campaign have been set up under the title ‘You can help the hungry, one cartridge at a time’.
Andrew Yeung, President of CompAndSave, stated: “Last year, over 400,000 tonnes of ink and toner cartridges ended up in landfills. They can actually sit there for over 1,000 years, but no one, not even scientists know how long it takes for plastic to fully biodegrade because it’s never been seen. We’ve been planning for some time to address this issue and have finally found the ideal solution with Food for the Poor – the non-profit organisation.
“We are not seeking any profit, this isn’t our goal. Our only aim is to lower the amount of e-waste in landfills and provide meals to those in need.”