In the printing business, ink is as good as gold.
Annual profits for Hewlett-Packard (HP), the leader in printer and ink sales, topped $8 billion in 2005.
And according to analysts for Business Week, ink and toner supplies made up more that 50 percent of HP profits.
James Kinskey, owner of Seattle Cartridge World, 400 N.E. 45th St., Suite 140, in Wallingford, is one of many who are waging a war against brand-name printer conglomerates.
"Get a cartridge, wrap it up in $15 and throw it in the trash because that's what's happening when you throw away an ink cartridge," Kinskey said.
In fact, Kinskey pointed out that an ounce of ink found in brand-name cartridges like HP, Lexmark and Cannon, which typically sell for $34, is more expensive than an ounce of Chanel No. 5 perfume, which retails for $29.
"Can you imagine pouring Chanel No. 5 into your print cartridge?" Kinskey asked.
He's even heard of stories where people will throw away their printers and buy new ones in an effort to save money on the high prices of ink. These stories are not surprising when an HP tri-color inkjet cartridge sold through the HP website retails for $29.99, while an HP color inkjet printer costs only $10 more.
"Part of the hook is that printers are really cheap. What you don't realize is that cartridges are equally, if not more, expensive. It's ridiculous," said Kathleen Norton, a 46-year-old Ravenna resident.
Waste as a trend
Waste is a growing trend, and printers are not the only products destined for the dump. According to Kinskey, eight cartridges are thrown away every second in the United States.
"Landfills are tombs now, lined with plastic," Kinskey lamented. "I don't really think there is a lot of biodegrading going on."
Yet cartridges can generally be refilled up to a half-dozen times.
"If they were all refilled six times instead, you can imagine the environmental impact of that," he said.
As the country gears up to celebrate and encourage environmental progress on Earth Day this Saturday, April 22, it's time to ask what's being done to help the environment in light of recent printer-cartridge trends.
In fact, a new line of retailers who refill empty printer cartridges and toners, with the help of third-party ink manufacturers, are making "reuse" a new and easy alternative to corporate printing products. In fact, with sky-rocketing ink and toner prices, the new alternatives are likely draining millions of dollars annually from the big manufacturers' bottom lines.
Of these new retailers, Cartridge World is the largest, with more than 1,000 stores worldwide, 325 stores in the United States and new franchises opening daily, according to its website.
These outlets offer local organizations and consumers a chance to reuse their empty printer and toner cartridges for around $16, with equal or better ink at half the price of what it costs to buy a new one.
"Our product is not very sexy. You know, it's not organic vegetables," Kinskey said. However, "it contributes to local sustainability in a fundamental way. It's practical."
His store, which is the newest Cartridge World franchise, even displays work by local artists such as Chandru Narayan, who used the store's recycled ink in his art.
"It's a huge consumer benefit: It's helping the environment, it's benefiting local nonprofits and it's creating local manufacturing jobs here that otherwise wouldn't exist," Kinskey said.
It seems that local consumers are extremely receptive to Cartridge World's contributions thus far.
"Whatever good it's doing is because people really support it," said Robbie Yata, a senior psychology major at the University of Washington and part-time technician at Cartridge World. "A lot of people are actively interested in these kinds of endeavors."
The mission
Cartridge World's environmental objectives are evident in its mission statement: help society transition from a throw-away society to a reuse-it society.
However, this means that people need to look above and beyond the call of recycle duty.
"There are glass, paper and plastic recyclables," Kinskey said. "But it's time to move beyond recycling. We need to broaden our horizons."
Kinskey looked to Scandinavian cars as an example of what he means. In Scandinavia, cars are built, used, disassembled and then reused.
"There are a lot of products we can do that with - products that we forget about but are easily reused," he said.
This is partly where the problem lies.
"Ink doesn't have to be that expensive, but consumers don't realize they have a choice," Kinskey said.
Printer manufacturers are so eager to keep their consumers brand-loyal that many companies threaten customers with ambiguous warranties. If customers use print or imaging accessories that are different from the company's, then that company "may void the warranty," Kinskey said.
"It goes back to Henry Ford and Ford gasoline," he said, referring to times in the early 20th century when the Ford Motor Co. attempted to make Ford-car owners buy only Ford gasoline.
"It's not just about making the money," Kinskey said.
Keeping the connection
Indeed, for Kinskey, Cartridge World seemed to be about everything but the money.
Kinskey joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps while at Gonzaga University and worked as a social worker for 15 years with developmentally disabled, mentally ill, elderly and homeless adults.
He traveled to Thailand to help with the refugee camps following the Cambodian civil war in the '80s.
He wouldn't fall into the entrepreneurial footsteps of his father and eight older siblings until just two years ago, when he and his wife, Kimberly, spent two years searching for a business that would help the environment.
They researched a series of innovative and bio-friendly investments, including organic farming and a worm harvesting and composting business. Although research suggested that many of these businesses would be surprisingly lucrative, they were all dead-ends for Kinskey.
Kinskey bought the Wallingford franchise for Cartridge World six months ago, after being introduced to the business by his brother Randy.
More than a mission to help the environment, Cartridge World has become a sort of tribute to Randy, who considered working for Cartridge World until he lost a battle against leukemia one month ago.
"It keeps me connected to him and inspires me to be successful," Kinskey said.
Not surprisingly, Kinskey said that he went through an identity transition from social worker to eco-friendly businessman. But he pointed out one of the important parallels between the two lines of work: "With social work, you're doing good for others. But you're still doing good here."
On Saturday, Kinskey will rally his Earth Day troops at Cartridge World. For him, what's good for the environment also can be good for business.[[In-content Ad]]
