Lets start with a good fact, today U.S. recycles 28% of its waste--a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years. In 1999, recycling, waste management and composting activities prevented about 64 million tons of material from ending up in landfills and incinerators. Recycling of specific materials has grown even more drastically: • 42 percent of all paper • 40 percent of all plastic soft drink bottles • 55 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans • 57 percent of all steel packaging • 52 percent of all major appliances are now recycled Which is good news, right? Wrong! Inkjet cartridge, laser printer cartridge and cell phone users have not done their part. Only 5% of empty printer cartridges and cell phones are being recycled. This is terrible news for future generations as 95% of inkjet and laser cartridges are discarded and end up in landfills. Not to mention the fact that the lack of printer ink cartridge recycling is costing tax-payers more and more money. Inkjet cartridge users such as schools and businesses are adding millions of tons of waste each year to our overflowing landfills. Have a look at the numbers. • It takes 2.5 ounces of oil to make a new inkjet cartridge and ten times this amount for laser printer cartridges. • Plastics used in these cartridges take over 1000 years to decompose. • With students averaging 8 inkjet cartridges, schools using 300 or more laser printer cartridges and businesses using 900 to 1600 inkjets and laser printer cartridges each year, we are producing and accumulating waste at an incredible rate. But there is hope. You can make a difference by participating in our inkjet cartridge recycling program. You can recycle cartridges, recycle toner and even cell phones, meaning less waste in the landfills and more hope for future generations and the environment. You can make a difference. Start recycling your printer inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges and help the environment. There are many recycle programs out there that can help you in helping the environment. This article is prepared by Ian Thomason who is the operations manager and cartridge recycling program director at PrintCountry.com. A longer version of this article can be found at Recycling Printer Cartridges Helps Environment. Main idea and resources of this article is taken from PrintCountry Recycle Printer Ink Cartridges.