•  STATISTICS;
  
  1. Each person will receive almost 560 pieces of junk mail this year.
  2. The average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail.
  3. More than 4 million tons (62,000,000,000 (billion) pieces) of junk mail are produced yearly.
  4. The majority of household waste consists of unsolicited mail.
  5. California’s state and local governments spend $500,000 each year collecting and disposing of AOL’s direct mail disks alone.
  6. Individually, about 40 pounds of junk mail are sent to every adult each year. Approximately 44% goes to a landfill unopened.
  7. Lists of names and addresses used in bulk mailings are in mass data-collection networks, compiled from phone books, warranty cards, and charity donations (to name a few).
  8. Your name is typically worth 3 to 20 cents each time it is sold.
  9. $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of unsolicited mail each year.
  10. It costs $550 million yearly to transport junk mail.
  11. The production and disposal of junk mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars.
  12. 100 million trees are ground up each year for unsolicited mail.
  13. 42% of timber harvested nationwide ends up as pulpwood for paper.
  14. It wastes 28 billion gallons of water for paper processing each year.
  15. If you cut your bulk mail for 5 years, you’ll conserve 1.7 trees, 700 gallons of water and prevent 460 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the air.
  16. 40% of the solid mass that makes up our landfills is paper and paperboard waste. By the year 2010, it is predicted to make up about 48%.
  17. Scarce landfill space disfigures rural areas and pollutes ground water.
  18. The majority of household waste consists of unsolicited mail.

• 100 million trees are ground up each year for unsolicited mail.
• It wastes 28 billion gallons of water for paper processing each year.
• More than half of unsolicited mail is discarded unread or unopened; the response rate is less than 2%.
• The result is more than 4 million tons of paper waste each year.
• It is difficult to recycle, as the inks have high concentrations of heavy metals.
• $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of unsolicited mail each year.
• It costs $550 million yearly to transport junk mail.
• Scarce landfill space disfigures rural areas and pollutes ground water.
• We each get about 40 pounds of junk mail a year, more than a tree's worth per family!

 

1.  More than 100 million trees’ worth of bulk mail arrives in American mail boxes each year – that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. (New AmericanDream calculation from Conservatree and U.S. Forest Service statistics) 
2. In 2003, 5.4 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream – enough to fill over 420,000 garbage trucks. Parked bumper to bumper these garbage trucks would extend from Atlanta to Albuquerque. Only 32% of this ad mail was recycled. (U.S. EPA.)
3.Citizens and local governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year to collect and dispose of all the bulk mail that doesn’t get recycled. (New American Dream estimate from EPA statistics)
U.S. companies sent 35 billion pieces of direct postal mail in 1980, 64 billion pieces in 1990, and 90 billion pieces in 2000. (U.S. Postal Service)
4. One study says Americans throw away 44% of bulk mail unopened, yet still spend 8 months per lifetime opening bulk mail. (Consumer Research Institute)
5. Fifty-five percent of Americans “dislike” and 26% “despise” getting internet disks in the mail, while 1.9% “really appreciate” them. (June 2002 Opinion Research Corporation International Poll commissioned by New American Dream)
6. Ninety-one percent of all U.S. adults have heard of the National Do Not Call Registry. More than half of all adults report that they signed up and now receive far fewer telemarketing calls or none at all. (February 2002 Harris Poll)

Why Recycle Ink Cartridges?

Health, environment, and sustainability all demand the recycling of empty ink cartridges. Some of the important facts and statistics that speak for recycling cartridges are listed here.

Disposing ink cartridges into garbage can cause great harm to environment and miniature life. It has been studied that the plastics used in inkjet cartridges can take over ten centuries to decompose naturally. Acute health hazards associated with unsafe disposal of ink cartridges include irritation, redness, and swelling of skin; irritation of eyes; stomach upset (if the harmful material is ingested); irritation of the respiratory tract (in case of prolonged inhalation). Most importantly, carbon black has been classified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. More than three quarts of oil are consumed in producing each new laser cartridge. For manufacturing a new inkjet cartridge, about three ounces of oil are required. Recycling helps lower this cost to a considerable degree. An estimated quantity of over 11 million gallons of oil can be saved in only seven months by ink cartridge recycling. In North America, more than 40,000 tons of plastic and metal is saved from landfills annually as a result of cartridge recycling. For every 100,000 used cartridges recycled, we can save 9599 kilograms of aluminum, 40 tons of plastic, and 1 000 000 liters of oil. Ink cartridge recycling has virtually become synonymous with successful sustainable development. The Process Of Recycling The process of recycling comprises returning empty ink cartridges to the recycling company. These cartridges are usually separated into their component materials and then recycled. While cartridge recycling is free and even wins the consumer a few bucks, recycling hardware as discarded printers can cost the consumer a small shipping and handling fee.

Some Major Ink Cartridge Recycling Programs

Some of the major recycling programs for ink cartridges/hardware include the Canon Recycling Program, Epson Recycling Program, Hewlett-Packard Recycling Program, Lexmark Recycling Program, and Xerox Recycling Program.