Experts call for "green print"

When people enjoy the convenience of laser printers and throw the used printer cartridges in the trash, few people think that this discarded toner cartridge will cause environmental pollution and it will be buried 1000 years underground. Will not rot. At the recently held seminar on computer consumables recycling, relevant experts called for the introduction of laws and regulations on the environmental protection and recycling of toner cartridges for laser printers as soon as possible, turning the toner cartridges, which are becoming public hazards, into waste.
According to Gong Binliang, secretary general of the Consumables Committee of the China Computer Industry Association, with the application and popularization of modern office equipment, printers as external output devices for computers are increasing at a rate of 30% per year in China, and there are more than 3 million laser printers in China. station. With each printer needing to replace 2-3 toner cartridges each year, these laser printers produce more than 200,000 cubic meters of solid waste per year and can fill 3,000 train cars. Moreover, the residual dust left in the old toner cartridge will float in the air, polluting the waters and the atmosphere, and the human body can easily breathe harmful dust that is invisible to the naked eye. In Shanghai, the number of laser printers has exceeded 400,000 units, and the demand for toner cartridges accounts for more than 10% of the domestic market. The pollution caused by one-time consumption of toner cartridges is equivalent to throwing more than 100,000 kilograms of contaminated dust to the sky in Shanghai each year.
The chairman of the Shanghai Aulon Electronics Co., Ltd., who has returned to China from overseas to return to China, said that the toner cartridges that are being discarded at the moment are actually of great value for recycling. In order to reduce the environmental pollution of the old toner cartridges, the European and American Consumables Industry Association has long promoted “green brilliance.” The United States wrote the “Environmental Protection Law” on the recycling of laser printer cartridges (toner cartridges) 8 years ago. The regulations stipulate that federal agencies must promote the use of recycled products.Now there are thousands of toner cartridge recycling companies in the United States, with an annual output value of more than US$10 billion.
Experts from the East China Normal University's School of Environment and Engineering also believe that an old toner cartridge undergoes a repair and regeneration process, which can save 50% of the cost compared to the production of new products, and the selling price only accounts for 70% of the original price. However, 90% of laser printer toner cartridges use one-time consumption because domestic consumers do not understand the hazard of waste toner cartridges. On the other hand, since there are no corresponding regulations and industry standards in China, there are not many enterprises engaged in the recycling of toner cartridges. Some companies cannot even recycle enough old toner cartridges and rely on imports. The products are mainly exported.
In fact, tens of millions of toner cartridges discarded each year in China are expected to create a multi-billion-dollar recycling industry. The market prospect is very broad.
It is reported that from the perspective of environmental protection and energy conservation, 40% of laser printer consumables in Europe and the United States use recycled products. In China, this area is almost blank. To this end, the experts suggested that the survival and development environment of the computer consumables recycling industry in China, such as laser printers, should be created as soon as possible. In accordance with the experience of developed countries, the national environmental protection department should take the lead in formulating the relevant laws and regulations and provide it as a normal recycling project. At the same time, the policy of production and use of remanufactured consumables is tilted; in the “Government Procurement Law”, it is necessary to clearly prioritize the procurement of recycled products and promote the concept of environmental protection; the “one-off consumption” and all other activities that are not conducive to the development of environmentally friendly consumables should be stopped. To meet the environmental protection policy of “reducing, harmless, and resource-based” wastes in China, and to promote the development of a comprehensive, healthy and orderly environmental protection industry in China.