If It Prints, I'll Let You Know

As more people are catching on to the idea of recycling, the ways by which recycling is done are also improving and becoming more interesting.

We have shared the recycling of printer ink cartridges in earlier posts. We have seen ink cartridge refilling and remanufacturing as well as the use of the idea of cartridge recycling for fund-raising purposes.

To date, most of the top printer and computer manufacturers have participated actively in and have organized their own recycling campaigns. Hewlett Packard, for its part, includes recycling packets in each box of ink cartridge, which consumers can use to ship empty ink cartridges back to HP. HP then recycles the cartridges. It has recycled about 250 million cartridges since it started doing so in 1991.

Having the little green packets, however, adds up to shipping costs, so HP has introduced a new recycling program in partnership with the retail store Staples. The program is called HP Planet Partners Print and Cartridge Return, where consumers can simply drop off empty cartridges at participating Staples outlets instead of shipping them off, getting a reward in return.

Another method of recycling that is currently being used is the trade-in. Consumers bring in their old processing units and monitors when purchasing new computers and printers, receiving a rebate on their purchases. This way, consumers do not need to dispose of these gadgets as trash that may end up in landfills.

Aside from remanufacturing, plastics from used ink cartridges are reused to create new ones. According to HP, up to 70 percent of the plastics used in manufacturing their ink cartridges are now recycled plastics. Recycled plastics (not taken from printer cartridges) were also used for two of HPs printer models, the HP DeskJet D2545 and the HP PhotoSmart D5400 series. The DeskJet D2545 has 83% of its plastic parts made out of recycled materials, while 55% of the D5400’s printhead comes from recycled content plastic.

As the printer industry strives to promote the preservation of Mother Earth through conscious efforts to recycle and develop environment-friendly products, it gives another happy consequence — creating jobs.

Just this month, a new company that recycles printer ink cartridges opened in Uganda, providing employment to at least a hundred people. With the continued promotion of ink cartridge recycling, this will probably be replayed in many areas all over the world. More and more business people are seeing the advantages of recycling ink cartridges, not just from an environment perspective, but in terms of business viability as well.

The business model is fairly simple. Cartridge recycling companies invest by purchasing used cartridges from printers and photocopiers. Most perform a process they call remanufacturing. They have machines that drain the remaining ink from used cartridges. It is called remanufacturing because they only process original cartridges form big-name manufacturers.

The recycling company ensures that their recycled product is built and functions just like the original, but for a fraction of the cost. They make money by making deals with big companies from whom they purchase the used cartridges and resell the recycled products. It’s a win-win situation for both as the company saves money and contributes towards preserving the environment, while the recycling company makes a decent profit.

The rank and file labor force of a recycling company may include casual laborers who will take care of the manual process of receiving and segregating cartridges sent in for recycling. Printers and technicians will be needed to take care of evaluating cartridges and overseeing recycling equipment and the recycling process. Laboratory assistants will implement quality control.

Having all these labor requirements translate to the creation of jobs, which in turn help the economy of the locality where the recycling company is set up. This is certainly not a bad consequence of resolving to save the environment.

This month, Dell added two new product categories to its printer portfolio: high-end enterprise laser printers and single-function color laser printers. These two product lines will feature models that are all designed in adherence to Dell’s focus on functional design and on the environment.

Two laser printers available in the market that belong to these lines are the Dell 7330dn A3 Laser Printer for businesses and the Dell 1230c for the home office. Both these models, as well as all new Dell laser products, are ENERGY STAR compliant. These models use up 25% less energy when compared with the more conventional printer models.

The ENERGY STAR program was created in 1992. In an effort to reduce the energy consumption and emissions of power plants, the United States Environmental Protection Agency established the program. This developed into a labeling program that identify and promote energy efficient products, all in the name of saving Mother Earth. Its first concentration was in the labeling of computer products, although they have since expanded to include other equipment.

As mentioned, ENERGY STAR-compliant printers use up 25% less energy. These printers are more efficiently designed which help them to run cooler and last longer, thus enabling businesses to also save up on air conditioning and maintenance costs. On top of this, these models have the capability to do double-sided printing, which will reduce paper costs.

Based on a statement from the official site of ENERGY STAR, a home office that uses ENERGY STAR-compliant equipment saves over $100 during the equipment’s life span. Overall savings due to the use of qualified ENERGY STAR products may reach $3 billion over the next five years, and can help avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the amount released by around 4 million cars.

So the next time you shop for a printer, look for the ENERGY STAR seal and help save the environment while earning huge savings.

Released in October, the Dell Photo P703W joins the increasing number of multi-function, compact and wireless-capable printers that are already available in the market. It is compact enough for use in a small office or as a home office printer. It will also be a good printer for university students staying in dorms or shared student housing.

The features that caught my attention were its standalone capabilities. The P703W is equipped with a multi-memory card reader that can accept most memory card formats, including Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and Compact Flash Type I and Type II. It has a USB interface that enables it to scan and copy documents and photos directly into a USB device or memory card, then printing these afterwards. The scanning area is more than sufficient at 12” X 8.5”, and the lid can be lifted about 2 inches to accommodate the scanning of thick materials such as books.

The printer has a 3” LCD screen that flips up for easy viewing. Through the screen, you can view, manipulate and edit photos, including rotating and cropping photos, before printing without connecting to a PC.

While other printers offer Bluetooth and wireless capability as an add-on feature, the Dell P703W has both features readily available. It will be simple to set up the printer as part of the home wifi network. This way, everyone can work independently and yet conveniently print documents without having to hook up to anything. It can also accommodate a wide variety of media types and sizes, from photos to documents, enough to cater to the printing needs of an entire family.

With all these interesting features, it is easy to overlook that Dell primarily released this as a photo printer. It can produce lab-quality professional prints at 1200 X 1200 dpi. All these add up to make the Dell Photo P703W a good professional-quality printer at home.

When I started exploring digital photography and printing photos at home, I realized that not everything that looks good on my monitor will turn out just as nice when printed. If this is also happening to you, you need not give up. You just need to better understand image resolution and its relationship with print sizes. Pretty soon, you will be printing photos like a pro using your home inkjet printer.

When you buy your digital camera, probably the first feature that will catch your eye is the megapixel rating. But what is a megapixel, anyway?

A megapixel, taken literally, means one million pixels. A pixel, in turn, is a small dot that can be likened to a jigsaw puzzle piece. It forms a tiny part of your whole picture. This means that the more megapixels are in an image, the sharper the image will be. This also means that while the quality of the image is better, its file size will also be larger.

Related to the megapixel is the resolution. This is the size of the image that your camera will produce, expressed in dimensions that are actually pixel dots arranged horizontally and vertically across your photo. A camera with a resolution of 1600 X 1200 will give you 1.92 million pixels, rounded up to 2 megapixels.

When you send your image to your printer, it will translate your image into ink-dots per inch or DPI. In contrast, your monitor is configured to display images in pixels per inch or PPI. This is why the image can look perfectly fine on your monitor, but can appear pixelated when printed out.

This may be a bit frustrating at the start, but with a little more practice, you will be able to get the photos that would look amazing both on the monitor and in print.