Toner cartridges should be recycled to save the environment from pollution. When they are thrown away, they end up in landfill and eventually degrade and break up causing the toner dust inside them to leach into the soil. From there it is eventually washed into waterways and oceans.
The toner dust is very fine and contains certain chemicals that are harmful to the environment. Inkjet inks also contain harmful substances. These ingredients will not only cause pollution to the waterways, but to all life in them and so eventually back to us as we consume ocean products.
If they are recycled, these ingredients can be re-used. That will save more metals being mined from the earth to make new ones. They can be left in the ground for future generations. It also saves water and electricity being used to make new products, because recycling them often uses less of these natural resources.
However, recycling must be done in a special way to prevent more problems in both health and the environment. When recycling is done in an uncontrolled manner, it is just as bad as the cartridges being used for landfill. Proper recycling of these products has now become so hi-tech that nothing goes to waste.
