Tips For Refilling Printer Ink Cartridges Using Soy Ink

2010-02-21

Ink, the kind that is used in printing presses, is a derivative of the farm crop soybeans. Petroleum - yes, what we put into our cars--is what used to be used to make inks for large scale commercial printing of magazines, newspapers advertisements and the like; only it was just derived from petroleum. In the 1970's when the price of oil was very high the Newspaper Association of America tried to find a cheaper alternative to oil-based ink. It found this alternative in soybean based ink. Ink that comes in ink cartridges for personal printers is made up of glycol, water, pigments or dyes.

There are several options for refilling printer ink cartridges. You can buy them almost anywhere. They most likely will sell them at Walgreens or Office Depot. Be sure to take the empty cartridge with you to help you or a store employee pick out the right one.

A person can take them to a local Walgreens and have them refilled. It should only take 20 minutes for Walgreens personnel to do this. The advantage of going this route is the price. It costs maybe a third of the price of a new ink cartridge from Office Depot or another office supplies store. One might even say it is a more eco-friendly option since you are not buying any new cartridges or discarding old ones. If you choose to simply get your cartridges refilled at Walgreens be sure to bring all of your printer ink cartridges you want to fill; you can do some shopping while you wait.

Another avenue you can go is to buy your printer ink cartridge online. There are a lot of companies that sell third party or after market ink cartridges or ink cartridge refill kits. Let's face it, printer ink cartridges is a razor and blades scheme since printer ink cartridges sometimes cost half of what it takes to buy a new printer. If you choose this route you might save up to little more than a third of what it takes to buy a new ink cartridge. Although the contents of printer ink cartridge kits look intimidating, do not worry, there are tons of videos on the internet to help you through the process. Some people use syringes and sprayers to refill their ink cartridges. This is because the opening of the cartridges is extremely small. Compare all of your options so that you will know that you are making a good choice. If you choose to buy an after-market printer ink cartridge you might also want to remember the price you paid for it so you can search for the same deal in the future.