Reusing ink jet cartridges can help the environment and usually save you money at the same time. With so many people opting to print out digital photos and other high resolution images at home, ink cartridges can get used up fast. The environmental impact of reusing ink cartridges alone can help to reduce the estimated 13 cartridges per second thrown away in just the United States, according to Earth911.com.

There are two ways to go about refilling and reusing an empty inkjet cartridge. The first way is to purchase an inkjet cartridge refill kit either online or at an office supply store, such as datasouq.com in uae.Using this method, you will need to refill the cartridge yourself using the refill kit and included instructions. The second method is to find a local establishment that specializes in dealing with ink and toner, such as infoprint technologies ,karama dubai where they will refill most inkjet cartridges on the spot. There are also many online ink/toner refill websites that allow you to ship empty cartridges to them, and they refill and return them to your home.

Recycling and/or refilling empty inkjet and toner cartridges can greatly benefit the environment. According to Earth911.com, a single ink cartridge requires nearly a gallon of oil during production. Furthermore, an estimated 375 million printer cartridges make their way into U.S. landfills each year, and most of them can either be recycled to produce new cartridges or simply reused by refilling with new ink. Ink cartridges are relatively sturdy and can be reused many times over before some of the smaller components start to fail.

Before deciding to refill your particular inkjet cartridges yourself, always be sure to check to see if that specific model number can indeed be refilled using an inkjet refill kit. In the same sense, be sure to contact the ink refill center via phone or email to first make sure that they can fill your specific type of printer cartridges. For instance, while Walgreens can refill most types of inkjet cartridges, they do not refill Canon or Epson printer cartridges

Reusing ink cartridges can add up to a significant savings over the long term. A story published at EPA.gov profiled a small newspaper company that decided to green in an effort to cut costs. One of their initiatives was to refill ink and toner cartridges used throughout the office a minimum of three times before purchasing new cartridges. By reusing ink and toner, this company saved approximately $3,500 per year on the cost of purchasing new printer cartridges. Additionally, their eco-friendly approach reduced overall waste by 97 percent, so it has a positive impact on the environment as well.

Some ink cartridge manufacturers, such as Hewlett Packard, recommend not refilling empty ink cartridges because of lower overall print quality and performance. While these claims may initially seem a bit biased, an independent research firm conducted tests on this very issue. Their results were published on the HP websites, which say that over "33 percent of tested refilled ink cartridges failed during use or right out of the box." The results were slightly worse for ink cartridges refilled by a refill service center at more than 41 percent. HP ink cartridges, on the other hand, worked every time with no failures.