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Recycled printer consumables and office supplies, that's what we've been featuring here on PrintGreen at most. While there are still more of these related topics that we talk about regarding eco-friendly toner cartridges and ink cartridges. Let's try to give some credits to the one that uses this products, and that's no less than the printer.

Do you know that these equipments particularly the printers, can also be refurbished? In the market, you'll find all types of printer equipments available, some may probably be inexpensive while others are considerably high-priced. Depending on your preferences, or how much perfectionist you are, certainly you'll get what you want. But what if you know that there's something out there, that can perform and deliver the same functionality, yet very much affordable? Would you still go for the branded, or would you choose the refurbished?

Giving you a clear view about such equipments, refurbished or recycled printers are machines that undergo intensive quality checking which includes : inspection, cleaning, and repairing processes. Hence, rest assured each recycled printers are of the same quality and can potentially match up with most branded equipments. Consider them cost efficient and environment friendly printing solution.

Imagine using less expensive printer cartridges with these refurbished printers, it can significantly minimize both your ownership cost and overall printing cause. Sounds wonderful for offices and workgroups that requires high-volume printing needs. I'm not sure about the matter, but I've heard some recycled printers are capable of using cartridge-free ink technologies which generates less waste than conventional printers.

There are also these options a few printer manufacturing companies offer, wherein their customers can return their old equipment for new ones. Through this great attempt, we can reduce the ecological impacts that e-waste generates yearly, as well as preventing printers from ending up in landfills.

If you're still doubtful of the quality, refurbished printers can provide, and that you still want to stick with your branded printer buddy, then consider using recycled printer cartridges. Save your pockets from spending too much with expensive OEM cartridges, while reducing your ecological impacts in the environment as well.

 
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Don't waste your old garments, RECYCLE it, and create a new fashion trend from reused apparel. 3D printing technology is something not new to most of us, but its creations and application are the things that can put us in to a jaw drop state. There are so much that it can do and manufacture such as miniatures or life-size figures, fully functional components and parts of a machine, even weapons. But it doesn't just end there, textiles or some sort of similar materials were used, hence entering the fashion industry.

Conceived by the vision of having a machine that can make his own wardrobe collection, Joshua Harris, an Industrial designer, has developed the Clothing Printer. With his colleagues, they were able to develop the printer as an entry in the Electrolux Lab design competition which was held in the year 2010.

The considerably intriguing Clothing Printer is actually a wall-mounted personal appliance that is connected to a particular fashion designer or apparel company. Through electronic data transfer, these designers and clothing company could send their digital designs to the printer from any house. If the customer likes the design, they can instantly print it using the Clothing Printer equipped with material cartridges, and the company makes a sale.

It's incredible, but here's more beyond what you've been thinking while reading this post. Once you're done with the clothe, or you just get bored with its style, just feed it back to the printer, and let the machine tear it down into thread for reuse, so you can have a new fashion trend for the next occasion.

The developer, Joshua Harris, stated "It would reduce or eliminate the need for closets, washers, and dryers, besides allowing instantaneous delivery of new clothing." He then added,  “the technology for a clothing printer exists but is not packaged in a form that would be suitable for consumer use.”

Imagine a wardrobe of trendy and fashionable clothes and apparel, with this printer you can never be outdated with the latest fashion style. It's just that I'm wondering how much would it cost to operate and maintain such printer. Yes, it can recycle your old clothes, but how about the energy consumption and all other factors required in its operation.

Indeed, the 3D printing technology rapidly evolves through time, consumers also demand for new and exciting stuffs, hence developers can't stop working. Though I'm pretty much pleased by this printer not only of its function, but the fact that it promotes recycling. Just like with conventional printer equipments that can be equipped with recycled toner cartridges and ink cartridges. Aside from the info and description aforementioned regarding the said printer, there are no further follow ups if it's already out in the market, nor will it be out soon.

 
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The feast of Saint Patrick already past, but with all the ideas and news around regarding better printing practices and stuffs like that, going green will never end.

There are so many things that we can talk about with regards to green printing, but let's try to take them one at a time. Focusing on recycled printer products, here's a printer paper named as ECOPET which is made from polyester fiber.

In the collaboration of Teijin and Nisshinbo Postal Chemical Co., using recycled polyester fibers that were taken from used PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, the team successfully created a special kind of printer paper. It's actually similar to typical printer papers that we used, it's just that both have different composition. Other than the said distinction, ECOPET papers are also of the same thickness and texture. What makes it more amazing is that it can't be torn as easy as a typical paper sheet, nor it doesn't fall apart when it gets wet.

If you're wondering how such material can be used for printing, well it's indeed suitable for use in laser printers or you can even draw and write directly on it. It's just like a normal sheet of paper that we've been used to, cutting or pasting its pieces is not a problem either. On top of that, it can also be recycled over and over again just like any typical paper material.

Imagine a printout that can last longer on outdoor purposes, like banners, posters and the likes, well you don't have to worry cause its actually a paper and a sheet of plastic as well. For commercial printing purposes, I think this one is more suitable than literally plastic tarpaulins.

Through this kind of material, it can double the advantage and benefits that any printer user can get when they accompanied it with eco-friendly toner cartridges and ink cartridges. Of course you can still use recycled printer papers if this one is not available in your area, and I don't have any clue on when it will become available.

It's been said that Teijin and Nisshinbo Postal Chemical Co. initially planned to sell the ECOPET paper to printer manufacturing companies and other business users. As soon as a I get an update with regards to this matter, I'll keep you posted here guys.

 
Every equipment or machine will meet its end of lifetime, I mean not everything lasts forever even us. Well it's up to you if you will still keep it even it's not working properly, but bear the consequences of keeping it. Eating up some space from your storage rooms, and the maintenance that you have to keep it free from dust or any elements that will worsen the obsolescence of your unit.

Your printer buddy, whether that's an inkjet printer or a laser printer, personal or office use, time will come that you have to bid farewell to your unit. The question probably would be, how are we supposed to disposed of this equipment? Throwing it in your trash bin is definitely not an option, but there are numerous ways and preferences on how you can considerably get rid of it.

First and bright option would be, to recycle it.
Here's a fact, every component there is inside and outside a printer can be recycled. The chassis and tray are both made of plastic, thus it is recyclable, while the other components let's say are made of rubbers and metals, which can also be reuse. If you don't know how to reuse those materials from your printer, then find a recycling service in your area and ask if you can either send or drop them off on their facility.

Second good option would be, to pass the hat.
If it's still working but not so wonderful enough, then why not make it a gift. Yes there are very affordable printer models in the market right now, but these latest models you say are indeed requiring high-cost consumables. Printers nowadays are typically costly to operate due to the expensive retail price of most toner and ink cartridges. Unless you can find a retailer that can provide you with re-manufactured cartridges or as we called it eco-friendly toner cartridges and ink cartridges. These cost-efficient printer cartridges can match up with most OEM products, granted that you purchased them from a trust worthy and competent retailer.

Third additional option, if you want to make some money.
I know that you already knew what I mean when I say you want to make some money. Sell it, well if there's anyone or any shop that would like to have your old printer, then what's holding you back, go turn that old junk into some bucks. Besides you don't actually need it. This option is helpful for someone who would like to upgrade to a new model, you can add the money you earn from selling the old printer so you find a better new printer.

If you know more options, or have any idea on how to properly get rid of your old printer equipments, you can drop it on the comment box below this post. For those who knows a recycling center, organization, facility or programs, near your place that you think it would be a great help to share it here, then feel free to post it on the comment box below.
 
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Photo Credit : Canon USA
According to a news from Canon, the imaging and optical products manufacturing company, they'll be rolling out an inkjet cartridge recycling scheme across more than 15 countries in Europe. This program has been formed following the success of Canon's one-year trial recycling program in the United Kingdom and Germany.


Canon stated :
''Our company's inkjet recycling scheme allows customers to recycle genuine Canon inkjet cartridges for free and ensures 100% of each cartridge is diverted from landfill.

According to the company, there is more than 97% of each cartridge has been either reused or recycled into new products while the remaining 3% will fall to the waste-to-energy sector.

If you can remember the voluntary agreement to green the printing industry which was favored by the biggest names in printing industry, Canon was also included on the list of manufacturers that signed up with the agreement. Again to explain the purpose of the said agreement, one of its great intention is to greatly reduce EU Industry's carbon footprint emission in terms of printing and copying.

This wonderful move by Canon has resulted in more than 287,000 tons of printer toner cartridges that were collected globally, which leads on saving more than 185,000 tons of raw materials needed in the production of printer consumables. Since 1990, the printer toner cartridges recycling scheme has been running in 20 countries - 16 countries where in EU.

For the list of supported countries which can be able to recycle their Canon printer cartridges, you may refer on the checklist below :
Austira            Belgium            Czech Repulic
Denmark         Finland              France
Germany         Ireland              Luxembourg
Netherlands     Norway             Slovakia
Sweden          Switzerland        United Kingdom

Customers and consumers of Canon printer products will be asked to fill in a short form online, upon which Canon will supply a free-post return envelope so the customers cartridges can be returned for recycling purposes, thus creating eco-friendly toner cartridges and ink cartridges from Canon printer manufacturing company.

 
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Have you tried using recycled paper materials in your office for printing purposes? Or have you tried recycling used printouts and other paper materials? If you haven't tried doing so, or have no plan of doing such thing, well reading this post would be better for you.

Do you know that when you sum up all the forests in the world, about 80% of it had been logged? According to statistics, 40% of these trees from logging goes to paper manufacturing process, while the other half falls on some businesses that require wood as raw materials. In addition, the industry of paper materials is considered as the fifth largest consumer of energy.

So for every sheet of paper you used or wasted, you also dwindle an amount of energy and natural material. Likewise, the more you re-used or recycled papers, the better you utilize and extend the worth of every wood and energy consumed in the production of these materials.

Paperless printing and eco-friendly printing practices have been promoted worldwide, and today there are several campaigns and organizations supporting the said movement. Imagine, even from its production, hazards and pollution are emitted during the process, which results in severe destruction of the ozone layer. Also, the notable amount of waste we accumulate annually is definitely alarming. Do you think the future generations would still have enough space to build their self a home if right now we require more landfills to dump our waste.

What could be the benefits of using recycled paper materials? First, using re-process papers is cost effective, and second, it is indeed beneficial for the environment. A wise consumer would opt for products that give savings without compromising the quality. Companies would also benefit from using such materials, it can cut down their office supplies cost by simply using recycled paper products. Printing in the office doesn't always require high-grade paper materials since most of the time employees are just printing drafts and initial reports.

To save more on your office printing expense, equipped your printers with eco-friendly toner cartridges or ink cartridges. These consumables are also made from recycled components that came from customers who returned used and empty cartridges. Isn't it nice, to save money while responsibly helping the environment. Well here's another that will boost you more to switch on usng recycled paper materials and printer consumables.

According to Waste Watch,
            "Every ton of 100% recycled paper bought in place of virgin fiber paper, about 30,000 liters of water and 3000-4000              kwh of electricity are saved."

Let's all promote paperless printing as well as the campaign on using recycled paper materials. So we can reduce the need to cut trees, and diminish paper waste dumped in the landfills. Recycling is one of the great solution to help us save the environment and also our pockets.

 
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More than 30 years ago, personal computers are too expensive, exorbitantly priced that not every house can afford to purchase one for their own. But look at it right now, cheap, very much affordable and we even have a thousand of options and models to choose from. Computers before were just sitting on houses of wealthy families, businesses and companies. Now, personal or desktop computers are considered an essential equipment that every house or every individual can afford to have.

Much like the 3D technology, the emergence of 3D printers became a hit in several manufacturing industries. It was intended mainly for production, what to produce depends on your own ideas or decisions. Actually 3D printing technology already existed a few years ago, it was used by large manufacturing companies in the production of several materials. But technology evolves and people get curious, which results to the invention of less expensive yet still costly but considerably smaller versions of 3D printers.

In the business industry, 3D printers are indeed a very useful machine in terms of several factors, it is worthy for a business or manufacturing company to invest on having such equipment. Now, many are trying to show its worth and value for the masses, just like what they have done with desktop computers. Revolution wise, computers before were really huge, maybe about the size of a room, but now we can have a personal or desktop computer that can share a space on our desk. If you try to think about it, maybe those bulky and large 3D printer equipments can also be innovated and re-invented into something smaller and cheaper but still capable of functioning as a full 3D printer.

A Kickstarter member, Mr. Brook Drumm, started a campaign to raise some capital for his project on building a 3D printer that could possibly fit on a kitchen counter. Imagine the way we adapt on the computer revolution, what if just like it, three-dimensional printing can be close at hand for any individual or every house. Just think about it, if you have one of this technology you can print anything you would need, as long as the printer is capable of producing, you know there's always a limitation to everything, just be realistic.

This technology, although sometimes misunderstood, will not replace conventional printing, it is indeed falls into the same category where it prints to create an output, but these two technologies are distinctly different, and applies in different ways. All 3D printers use filaments or plastic materials to produce anything in three dimensions, while a typical printer uses eco-friendly toner cartridges or ink cartridges to create two-dimensional printouts. Thus, it makes sense why these two technologies can never be compared.

I myself would love to have my own 3D printer, and you have read my previous post about the 3Doodler 3D printer, you'll surely be enticed as well to have one.

 
The 3D technology creates massive changes from the printing industry, it allowed many aspiring creative builders to bring their 2D drawings and ideas into three dimensional figures and objects. Before, it started as manufacturing small-sized materials, then gradually it changes and evolved which results to its application on creating heavy and bigger stuffs from the controversial 3D guns up to home building materials. It is indeed a breakthrough in the print technology, and although it hasn't totally reached the masses with its expensive price, many have brought their own ideas into realities through this technology.

Now for those who haven't tried using a 3D printer, well you're not alone as you can include me on the list, here's a great surprise for all of us who want's to create our own 3D-made design. Let's all give our praise to WobbleWorks, by developing the very first 3D-printing pen for a much affordable value. Behold the 3Doodler, a 3D printer with the size of a pen, although it's much bulky to grip that's definitely considerable. The 3Doodler device is also equipped with the heated extrusion head of a typical 3D printer and uses a thread of ABS/PLA plastic filament to create three-dimensional printouts.

The 3Doodler is effectively useful for creative doodlers as it allows freehand drawing in the thin air, creating structures and 3D models as sturdy as the ones constructed using the MakerBot 3D printer. With this device, you don't have to create a three-dimensional or CAD model that you need to print on your printer, thus you save the cost of consuming inks or toners with your eco-friendly toner cartridges and ink cartridges. Just create your own 3D design as simple as like you're doodling, the only difference now is that you don't create your 2D drawing in a sheet of paper, instead you create it in three dimensions by sketching in space.

Unlike any typical 3D printers that you just have to wait after submitting the CAD model from your desktop to your printer, and then let it do all the printing, with the 3Doodler, there's a technique you need to master to be able to create a nice 3D object. There are two buttons provided on the front which allows the control of the filament extrusion. The 3Doodler is available through KickStarter, details and price are provided through this link. The company is still working on developing a 3Doodler version that can be powered by a battery unit. I'll keep you posted about this great invention as I'm also thinking of getting one for myself.
 
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If you're familiar with FilaBot, a machine that creates filament for 3D printers from old recyclable plastic materials, which was also featured here in PrintGreen last month. A new version of this machine has been created, it's not actually an upgraded version of the Filabot, but it's a machine that works just the same with a different mechanism. Still it is intended to produce substrates for 3D printers that use plastic materials to create three-dimensional outputs.

Designed by Marcus Thymark, a German Engineer and Inventor, this filament-producing machine called FilaMaker can grind up and reprocess plastic waste materials. As of now, Thymark's project still needs some improvement, by integrating an additional melter and extruder which the machine lacks. Based on a hand-cranked, he made a plastic shredder with the use of some stainless steel which acts as the teeth of the machine that powerfully grind up each pieces of plastic materials you feed.

Thymark explained his invention :
            "The FilaMaker can handle different kinds of plastic, such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyethylene                 (PE), and polypropylene (PP). The design of the machine allows the user to handle materials in different forms                     (even plastic bags), and to easily switch from one material to another. "

With the use of the FilaMaker, 3D printing enthusiast can now be able to reproduce filament materials for their printers just by recycling plastic waste piling up in the bin. Even your previous 3D projects like figures and miniatures can be grind up with the use of this machine, so you re-use those filaments and create a new design.

Aside from this great inventions, if you really want to go green with your printing habit, whether that's a 3D printer or just a conventional printer, there are ways from which you can turn your regular printing practice. With 3D printers, make sure you dispose of properly those toxic materials that should be discarded. For conventional printers either laser type or ink type, you can return your empty or used ink cartridges to your respective manufacturer so they can recycle those. There are several major printer manufacturing companies that are developing eco-friendly toner cartridges and ink cartridges for their customers, to cut down their printing expense and also save the environment.

 
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Feliz Día de San Valentín or simply Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Well there's a lot of nifty gifts and ideas you guys should think about this special day. PrintGreen is a green journal for eco-friendly stuffs and related things, but since it's a special day for everyone or not, giving credits to those bitter folks, let's have something related to this heart season.

If you're stuck on finding the best gift that would definitely melt your special someone's heart, then why not spend some good money this Valentine's day with a personal touch. One of the trending technology in the print industry is the 3D or three-dimensional printing. For those who haven't heard, 3D printing doesn't only involve molten plastic materials in order to create objects in three dimensions. Traditionally it was, but nowadays 3D printers are now used not only for plastic figures or stuffs, but also for food preparations, creating artificial human organs, and many more.

The emergence of 3D printing technology has become more innovative and surprising, from small toys and miniatures up to large-scale buildings, the application of three-dimensional printing is never ending. Now for this Valentine's Day, the said technology again has something to offer for us. A famous store particularly the FabCafe situated in Shibuya has offered an interesting workshop for aspiring chocolatiers to learn how to create an edible guilty pleasure treat of someone else's face. Explaining it simply, you scan your face or somebody else's face to have a three dimensional digital model which then be printed using the ProjetHD 3D Printer. The printed material will serve as the mold from which the chocolate will be poured to fill the form and then let it solidify either by placing it inside the fridge or just let it rest on a cool room temperature.

Just place it inside a box and you are all set for the Valentine's Day. Make your special someone happy by making his or her own mini chocolate molded face. To make it more special, along with the box of chocolates you can also include a note card filled with some sweet nothings, printed using recycled paper materials and eco-friendly toner cartridges or ink cartridges depending on your printer. Have a great Valentine's Day this February everyone, stay lively and always be environmentally friendly.



    Author

    Fiel Mori Promotes Eco Friendly stuffs and creating environment friendly articles for everyone @PrintGreen



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