Lexmark Return Program Ink Cartridges

This article was submitted to us by a customer, but it made sense to us so we published it.



When I saw that Lexmark had brought out a new version of their ink cartridges called "return program" ink cartridges I thought they had at last decided to do something about the waste produced by simply throwing the empty ink cartridge away. So I bought one aswell as a normal version of the same cartridge.
When I opened the Lexmark "return program" ink cartridge I had to agree to the terms & condition written on the packet. I basically agreed to return the empty cartridge back to Lexmark. Fair enough, recycling is good !
But I actually always do a kitchen sink refill with a kit bought from you guys. This was as easy as with all the other Lexmark ink cartridges I had refilled. But even though I had a lovely head print on a peice of tissue the cartridge would not work in the printer. So a bit of internet research horrified me.
The cartridges are designed to die when they are empty, so they cannot be recycled in the true sense of the word. I then had a look at a same cartridge, but not a "return program" version and found it could be refilled with no builtin die function.

Then the penny dropped, the agreement I made with Lexmark when I opened the cartridge could be a clever way of getting around the EU`s electronic recycling laws and stops companies like yours from remanufacturing the cartridges.

James Hardy
Newcastle

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