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 β€” 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 β€” they can be reused for good causes instead of just recycled:

Reuse Full Cartridges

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.

Recycle with Hewlett Packard (HP)

Brother runs a free postal service for returning cartridges.

Recycle with Brother

N.B. You are not required to tick the box saying that Brother may contact you in the future.

Canon currently accepts most of its toner and ink cartridges for free recycling.

Recycle with Canon

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.

Epson's free service collects most of their ink and laser cartridges.

Recycle with Epson

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].

Email Kodak

Accept returns of cartridges for some of their printers and office systems.

Recycle with Konica

Kyocera Mita accept return of their own genuine cartridges by a FREEPOST address.

Recycle with Kyocera

Lexmark's service collects most of their ink and laser cartridges.

Recycle with Lexmark

Send Neopost an email with your details, and they'll send you a Freepost envelope to return one or more Neopost cartridges.

Email Neopost

Oki offer a freepost service for low volumes of returns, and a collection service for more high-volume users.

Recycle with Oki

Panasonic can send you pre-paid postal return labels for their own branded cartridges. Contact them by email directly on their web site, as their automated service appears to be giving errors.

Email Panasonic

Ricoh offer a free service to recycle your Ricoh print consumables.

Recycle with Ricoh

Please note: HP have taken over Samsung's cartridge business, and you should return your items to HP.

Recycle with 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.

Recycle with Sharp

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.

Offer free postal return for most of their cartridges.

Recycle with Xerox

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.

Recycling By Manufacturer