|
WHY
RECYCLE
CARTRIDGES?
As an industry, we conserve more oil in each seven month
period than was spilled into Alaska’s Prince William Sound
by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.
*The average re-manufacturer restores 338 cartridges per month
and is therefore saving 999 litres of oil and 383 kilograms of
hazardous waste from landfills each month.
Stacked one on top of the other, a tower of cartridges produced
annually by an average re-manufacturer, would exceed the height of the
Empire State Building.
For every cartridge that is remanufactured, approximately
1
kg of plastic is withheld from the waste stream.
The plastic in a typical cartridge is
industrial grade
and takes
approximately 1,000 years to decompose.
The manufacturing process involved in making a new cartridge
requires the burning of fossil fuel, specifically oil or natural gas.
On average, 2.8 litres of oil are burned to make each new
cartridge.
Due to the lack of valid and reliable data, the effects of plastic
decomposition on groundwater, are largely unknown.
*Information from
American Re-manufacturing Industry Statistics, January 1998.
Australia is just
starting to take advantage of the cost and environmental benefits of
re-manufacturing.
|
