Paid-For Cartridge Collections

There are a couple of services run by companies that will offer to collect your cartridges in exchange for a fee.

⚠️ If you have full / unused cartridges made by your original printer manufacturer and still sealed in their packaging, try our full cartridge guide instead:

Recycle Full/Unused Cartridges

Handling these separately from your empty cartridges will raise much more for good causes, you're much more likely to get free collections for these, and your full cartridges are reused instead of just recycled.

Zero Waste Recycling

Collection of a medium-sized box (e.g. 60x40x40cm) up to 25kg (typically enough for 25 empty toners) is £31.00 + VAT (or £21+VAT if you arrange and pay for the shipping). This works out as about £2 per cartridge if you fill a box with 20.

Book Collection with ZWR

They take *any* ink cartridges, laser cartridges, toner bottles, waste toner cassettes, imaging / drum units, fuser units, and transfer belts for printers. They can also provide cardboard display and shipping boxes (60x40x40cm) at £2.80+VAT each, and a £5+VAT delivery charge for the order, but of course you can use your own boxes to help recycle.

Don't Want to Pay?

Try the other options in our empty cartridge recycling guide if this isn’t a good solution for you.

Bear in mind the free options mean you will need to do some sorting and identification of your cartridges and send them to the right place — if you have a large number and are short on time, paying £1-£2 per cartridge for a premium service above may be worth it.

If your items are not eligible for any free services then you still have an environmental responsibility, and a legal one if you are a business. You should factor the cost of recycling into your cartridge purchasing decisions.

Why Recycle Empty Cartridges?

75% of empty cartridges in the UK are not recycled even though there are plenty of reuse and recycling options, and many of them are free and easy to use.

A typical cartridge, with its plastics and electronics, will take up to 1,000 years to degrade in a landfill site, but having an empty cartridge reused saves up to 2.5kg of CO2 compared to making a new cartridge from scratch.

everycartridge.com is here to help you to find and use the many services that exist locally and nationwide, and cut through the misinformation to ensure that your cartridges do not go to landfill.

Recycling By Manufacturer