Your printer cartridge has served you well, but now it has run out of ink. What do you do? Throw it in the trash? We hope not!

In 2001 we began to look for a better answer than the trash can. We came up with one -- the RENEW cartridge recycling mailer! Aspiring toward our long term goal of creating a positive impact on our environment and community led us to focus our attention on the recycling of one of the world's fastest growing consumable items. Rather than throwing away empty printer cartridges we want to recycle them into again useable cartridges or use them to make other products.

How RENEW Began

The beginnings of RENEW can be traced back to 2001 when, from a garage, we began collecting empty printer cartridges door-to-door and through the mail (that's our son in the picture, he was 2 at the time, helping us sort empty cartridges for recycling). As our collection efforts began to grow we soon learned of customers needed a more convenient way to recycle their empty printer cartridges. They did not want to keep empty printer cartridges lying around the house until we could come and get them. We also learned that where there was an empty cartridge there was a need for a full cartridge to replace it.

Customers began asking, "If you are giving you an empty cartridge, can't you provide us with a full one?" It made perfect sense, if we were collecting empty cartridges for recycling we should also be providing our customers with full cartridges so they would not have to run out to a store every time they ran out of ink. The RENEW cartridge reycling mailer was born!

The mailer is designed to be a convenient and inexpensive way to recycle and reuse your empty printer cartridges. You use the mailer to send us your empty cartridge (we pay for all postage!) and we exchange it for the equivalent recycled, and ready to use, cartridge in return.

Where RENEW is now

In 2005 we officially became RENEW, and we've continued to expand our printer cartridge recycling efforts. We're still focused on creating a positive impact on our environment and community. To achieve our goal we team with groups and organizations across the country to handle the logistics of distrbuting the RENEW recycling mailer. A portion of the sale of ever mailer is then given to them to help them raise funds to support their organization. Each month our recycling products and services prevent thousands of empty cartridges from being thrown away while producing thousands of dollars to support various community programs.

What We Do With Empty Cartridges

Each year more than 400 million printer cartridges are thrown away. We want to recycle each and every one of them (a bold statement, but why not?). Once we receive an empty cartridge we do our best to recycle it into an again useable cartridge, a cartridge that you can put in your printer and print with. It's important to keep in mind that not all cartridges can be recycled in to an again useable product. Some are manufacturer designed for only one use, while others simply wear out. In cases where a cartridge cannot be used again it is ground down. The grounds are then used in the creation of other plastic and metal based products we use in our daily lives. The printer cartridge you are using today could be part of a playground your kids play on in the future.