How To Choose An Environmentally Friendly Printer Ink Cartridge

2010-08-15

You have an energy saving printer, you use recycled paper for your everyday printing, and you even refill your empty printer ink cartridge instead of buying a new one. If you have taken all of these steps to help reduce your impact on the environment, why haven't you switched to environmentally friendly ink? There are many choices when considering "green" ink, and hopefully the following will help you find the one that is right for you.

There are a few major types of eco-friendly replacement ink for your home ink jet, and by far the most popular alternative is soy ink. Soy ink greatly reduces or even eliminates the harmful VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions usually associated with the evaporation of common petroleum based ink. Soy ink has become the dominant ink employed by newspapers, particularly for color printing, and creates sharper and more vivid color images and text than traditional inks. Soy, of course, is renewable and abundantly available-making it very cost competitive (sometimes even cheaper) than traditional inks. One of the few downsides to soy ink is an extended drying time.

Environmentally friendly ink can be made from other vegetables as well. Rather than using oil derived from petroleum or soy to make the ink, oil is produced from renewable and biodegradable crops such as corn, sunflowers and even carrots. When using this kind of ink, one can expect to see the same vivid color printing as soy inks, but often see a 10-15% drop in ink consumption due to the use of a less evaporative material to deliver the ink to the page. The result is an ink that on average has lower VOC emissions than even soy ink because it requires less oil. These eco-savings however involve higher costs.

Most inks contain pigments and dyes, the solids that remain on the printed page, that contain harmful chemicals and metals. Even in soy and other vegetable-oil based inks, the solid parts of the ink may contain mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and even lead. Of course, theses heavy metals present a health risk. For optimum eco-friendliness, be sure to fill your printer ink cartridge with inks that have either very low or zero heavy metals. Be especially careful of cheaper inks manufactured outside the U.S., as there are fewer restrictions on the contents of these inks.

Now is the time to round out your eco-minded printing with environmentally friendly ink. These types of inks are falling in price and climbing in importance. With a growing number of options to help you stay green, consider eco-friendly inks next time you need to fill up your printer ink cartridge.