City council sees it as a solution to reduce waste.

 

Los Angeles City Council has voted on a proposal to ban the sale of single use printer cartridges within the city’s sprawling city limits. 

 

The council sees it as a solution to reduce waste and is folded into a wider measure that targets other single-use products such as vape cartridges, takeaway containers and coffee pods. 

 

The ordinance is yet to be approved, but if passed both first-party and third-party single-use cartridges will be banned from sale in the city.

 

Australia doesn’t yet have an ordinance like this, but there has been legal action surrounding manufacturer’s patent rights over printer cartridges.

 

The outcome of this action at the High Court was that a patent holder’s rights over a product are exhausted once that product is sold, paving the way for cartridge refilling services to conduct business, according to a report in Cyber Shack.

 

Cartridge recycling bins are available at all Officeworks stores as well as a range of other technology and office stores.

 

However, most cheaper models use cartridges made of a combination of materials that require specialised recycling to deal with, inevitably leading to some cartridges ending up in landfill.

 

It’s estimated that more than 18 million printer cartridges end up in Australian landfills annually.