Return to Manufacturer
Almost all printer cartridge manufacturers offer free recycling schemes for their cartridges, as a courtesy to you as their customer.
Manufacturers do not make any charitable donation for empty cartridges, and may not collect all items they made, so if you need another solution try our main empty cartridge recycling guide.
You must only send genuine, original cartridges made by that manufacturer — and not any recycled, refilled, "compatible" or "remanufactured" cartridges made by another manufacturer.
⚠️ Got any full / unused cartridges?
If you have full & unused cartridges still sealed in their packaging, do not send them back to your manufacturer — they can be reused for good causes instead of just recycled:
Check for a Recycling Envelope
First, check if your cartridge (or the new one you've bought) came with a pre-paid recycling envelope or postage label from the manufacturer to use to return an empty cartridge. This will potentially save you some time and hassle!
Choose Your Manufacturer
Choose your printer manufacturer to visit their recycling programme.
HP's free service allows you to return most laserjet and inkjet cartridges that were made by Hewlett Packard and Samsung.
Brother runs a free postal service for returning cartridges.
N.B. You are not required to tick the box saying that Brother may contact you in the future.
Dell no longer offers a postal return service for their ink and toner cartridges. Please try the other options in our main empty cartridge recycling guide.
I'm afraid Kodak do not run a recycling service that we know of. If you would like to contact them about this, please email them at [email protected].
Kyocera Mita accept return of their own genuine cartridges by a FREEPOST address.
Send Neopost an email with your details, and they'll send you a Freepost envelope to return one or more Neopost cartridges.
Oki offer a freepost service for low volumes of returns, and a collection service for more high-volume users.
Panasonic have not produced new printers in many years, but if you email them they can send you pre-paid postal return labels. Contact them by email directly on their web site.
Please note: HP have taken over Samsung's cartridge business, and you should return your items to HP.
Sharp accept return of their own genuine toner cartridges (but not any waste toner bottles) by a free collection service, and they can send you cardboard containers too for various quantities to ship them in.
Toshiba offer a subsidised recycling service, in the form of their ECO BOX product, though this is very expensive.
We would suggest you pursue other commercial recycling services.
These images are all copyright and registered trademarks of the companies concerned and are used here for illustrative purposes only.
Why Recycle with the Manufacturer?
As they are the manufacturer of these items, they will know best how to reuse or recycle the components, so this is a good environmental destination for your cartridges (if they cannot raise funds for a good cause).
Not a good solution for you? Try the other options in our empty cartridge recycling guide instead.
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.
