PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The European ink cartridges market is worth around EUR 9.4 billion, with 370 million units sold annually. Almost every person living in the EU buys, uses and discards a cartridge each year on average. As for the related market, 85% of it is dominated by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that are almost exclusively large enterprises, which often do not encourage the reuse of cartridges. The disposal of printer cartridges is regulated by the EU Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive (2012/19/EU) and provides for the creation of collection schemes where consumers can return their WEEE free of charge.
Cartridge reuse rates are however rather low, covering only around 20% of the items in circulation, while most items are still incinerated or landfilled, generating significant environmental impacts. There is a good potential for increased reuse through improved handling of cartridges entering the WEEE stream but more efficient and scalable regeneration techniques and business models are needed. Traditional regeneration procedures involve a cleaning phase that consumes large amounts of water and chemical solvents.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE NEW4CARTRIDGES project provided solutions for both the upcycling of exhausted reusable cartridges and the recycling of cartridges no longer suitable for reuse.
The specific objectives were to:
- develop, demonstrate, and adopt a semi-automatised ink cartridges regeneration process to replace the currently manual workflow, achieving a 230% increase in the service life of ink cartridges, with the same cartridge being reusable up to 10 times instead of the current 3 times limit;
- implement a new cleaning procedure for used cartridges;
- recycle cartridges that are not reusable through an innovative technology specifically customised for the treatment of printer consumables, to obtain high-quality secondary raw materials;
- provide quantitative data on the environmental and cost sustainability of the new process and products through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analyses;
- monitor the quality of ink cartridge regenerated by measuring the rate of returned products from customers, with the goal to reach less than 4% of returns;
- raise society and consumers’ awareness and foster discussion at policy level about the more sustainable paradigm proposed by the project.
Through the introduction of an environmentally-friendly alternative to disposal, the project would contribute to achieving the objectives of the Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive (2012/19/EU), the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), the Roadmap for a Resource Efficient Europe and the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.
RESULTS
The project was implemented as foreseen and achieved its expected results.
The project developed and validated a clean, semi-automatised and scalable ink cartridges regeneration process (63,000 cartridges processed). This is expected to replace the currently manual workflow for the upcycling of exhausted reusable cartridges and the recycling of cartridges no longer suitable for reuse.
The regeneration process was analised using a LCA methodology, showing a significant reduction in carbon emissions, water usage, energy and chemicals consumption. On average, the project achieved a 53-61% reduction in environmental impact across all assessed environmental categories, demonstrating that the regeneration process is a far more sustainable option for managing ink cartridge waste. On top of that, the project showed that cartridges can be reused up to 10 times.
Additionally, the project developed a LCC analysis, showing that the regeneration system is economically viable, with potential for significant cost savings over the long term.
Finally, the project also contributed to raise awareness about sustainable practices, mainly among consumers and businesses.
A manifesto and 2 white papers were finalised, suggesting the following EU-level actions to address shortage of empty cartridges and to support the remanufacturing industry:
- Policy harmonisation to encourage Member States to adopt uniform regulations that classify empty cartridges as goods rather than waste;
- Cross-border collaboration to promote the postal return of cartridges across the EU, enabling consumers to easily return cartridges for remanufacturing regardless of their location.
- Establishment of specific collection channels for printer cartridges within the WEEE framework, to facilitate an efficient management and recycling of these items.
