Tips When Recycling a Printer

Tips When Recycling a Printer

Hey there folks!

TLDR: Remember to remove your paper. Most printers do not retain data that you need to be concerned about. Copiers/MFP's can have storage that needs to be destroyed.

Hope you are all doing well. A while back I made a post about printer recycling. It seemed to do quite well so clearly this is a question a lot of people have. Since then we have recycled a lot of printers. In fact, in the last 365 days we have recycled over 45,000lbs of just printers. In terms of volume and weight they are our top item. I made this post to answer some things based on our observations, hopefully this helps.

Here are the tips

  1. PAPER: Don't forget your paper! We receive a LOT of paper still inside the printers. And my downstream vendor does not want it, so we make sure to check every printer. Don't get me wrong, my kids love having some free paper to color on. But I do think many of the people and businesses that drop their printer off would benefit from it more than we do.

  2. DATA: Most home/desktop printers don’t have hard drives, but some higher-end models and office MFPs (Multi Function Printers/Copiers) do—so if data security matters, tell us and we’ll handle it accordingly. Technically the RAM in a printer can contain some data temporarily but this clears when the printer loses power.

  3. TONER & INK: We can recycle toner and ink. Don't hesitate to bring your new toner and ink when you recycle the printer it goes with.

  4. CABLES & POWER ADAPTERS: We can recycle power cables and power adapters. But don't hesitate to keep yours if you need it for the next device.

Here is a checklist

  1. Check for paper
  2. Decide whether to keep power cable
  3. Determine if your device may have data/if you are concerned about that
  4. Bring it to us or your relevant local recycler

Outside of that, I have not come across a printer we haven't been able to recycle. And thankfully our new downstream vendor is able to accept full MFP's so we no longer need to charge for those.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support us in our mission by bringing stuff here. We are having a blast. We appreciate you.

If you have questions let us know!

Casey

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