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Toner cartridges are normally sent to landfill at the end of their useful life, where the plastic will sit for hundreds of years before decaying. A company called Waycam, however, has an unusual solution to this problem; they turn the old cartridges into 'plastic wood' and make garden furniture out of it.
The process recycles 100 per cent of the cartiridges, with all metal components being removed and sent off for recycling at another plant. The plastic is then recycled into TRI-wood, which stands for Toner Recycled into Wood.
Toner cartridges cause all sorts of environmental problems: toner powder can also leak into the soil, which isn't good news. Even worse, they are sometimes incinerated, releasing their stored carbon into the atmosphere.
"Until now the only solution for Toner cartridges with no value or that have already been re-manufactured once was either land fill or incineration," say Waycam on their website. "We accept all cartridges regardless of age, type original or re-manufactured and recycle all the parts without landfill or incineration."
Waycam can also handle recycling of computers, old electronic equipment and TVs. What they will think of to make out of those, we have no idea.
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