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What’s that “R-word” that we can’t go a few steps without seeing our hearing in the newspaper, in magazines, at work, at the mall, at bus stops, and in commercials? Ah, yes, recycling. Why is recycling such a big deal? Obviously, the Industrial Revolution has been great for many people – I bet you’re reading this on a computer manufactured in such a complex way that it would have been absolutely unthinkable a century or two ago. We also use consumer products like cars, records, cell phones, and coffee from all over the world and think nothing of it. Surely, this is a great thing, right?

Well, aside from increasing our quality of life in many ways, the Industrial Revolution did have some ill side effects. One of them is, if you build a bunch of products that naturally degrade and need to be disposed of – that are not biodegradable and therefore do no easily breakdown, where do we put said products once they have outlived their usefulness as commodities? Take products like printer cartridges. We put hundreds of millions of them into the earth every year – the plastic, ink, and other unnatural materials should not be going into landfills like they are. Even for high-quality products, like HP ink, recycling is an afterthought.

We need to start being more forthcoming in our thinking about ways to help the earth. Many places of business – retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and other middlemen are starting to get into the business of accepting old toner cartridges for recycling. HP ink recycling, for example, is easy to find in many cities and some places will even pay you for the chance to reuse materials.

As consumers, we have a special privilege to buy and support companies we love. However, we have to remember to reuse and recycle whenever possible so that global warming and groundwater pollution – to use to examples – do not happen. After all, maybe recycling those cartridges will help manufacturers to lower their costs and we can buy cheaper goods!