{"id":2423,"date":"2007-08-22T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-22T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablog.greenoptions.com\/2007\/08\/22\/detroit-area-startup-sees-gold-in-printer-cartridge-recycling\/"},"modified":"2007-08-22T01:25:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-22T01:25:00","slug":"detroit-area-startup-sees-gold-in-printer-cartridge-recycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/detroit-area-startup-sees-gold-in-printer-cartridge-recycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit -Area Startup Sees Gold in Printer Cartridge Recycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
While printer ink cartridges (at least for a home printer) seem like a small thing, Kirk Goodell tells The Detroit News<\/a> that over 500 million of these items are produced every year, but less than 20% of them are recycled or remanufactured. That number may go up a bit as Goodell’s two-year-old company IQ Cartridge<\/a> will be have a retail presence established in over 100 Meijer<\/a> stores around the Midwest by mid-October.<\/p>\n

Founded by company president Kristin Kavanaugh and Goodell, the vice president, IQ Cartridges offer something incredibly important to raising levels of recycling: convenience. Currently located in 57 Meijer stores, customers can drop off and pick up ink cartridges, generally with a one-day turnaround. The company also has contracts with a number of businesses in the area, including Eastern Michigan University Computer Center, Ludwig Seeley Commercial Real Estate, and and AllTire, and offers free deliveries (in a subcompact car) to businesses on orders over $50.<\/p>\n

While printer cartridges are small things, the revenue projections for the company aren’t: with the growing contract with Meijer, the company expects to see almost $1 million in sales this year… not bad for its second year! The company’s website badly needs some design help, but there’s great information there, including a list of ten misconceptions about remanufactured ink jet cartridges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While I’m realizing as I read over this that it sounds a bit like a press release, I’m impressed because it looks to me (at least from this one article) that IQ Cartridge has hit upon a couple of truths about green business: first, people will make greener choices if it’s easy for them to do so; second, providing that opportunity to potential customers can be profitable.<\/p>\n

Like many greenies, I want more people to take bigger steps towards lowering their environmental footprint. I want to see them give, and perhaps even sacrifice to make the world a better place. But, I also realize that a lot of people don’t have that level of motivation: they’d like to do the right thing, but aren’t willing to make extra efforts. It’s easy to berate; it’s probably more productive to point out the opportunities this creates for creative entrepreneurs willing to meet the needs of these “lazy environmentalists.”<\/a> If the number of ink cartridges (or glass and plastic botles, etc., etc.) getting recycled increases. that’s still a step forward.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Elizabeth Conley \/ The Detroit News<\/p>\n

Categories: recycling<\/a>, inkcartridges<\/a>, business<\/a>, iqcartridge<\/a>, meijer<\/a>, detroit<\/a>, michigan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While printer ink cartridges (at least for a home printer) seem like a small thing, Kirk Goodell tells The Detroit News that over 500 million of these items are produced [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":17301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[39],"yoast_head":"\nDetroit -Area Startup Sees Gold in Printer Cartridge Recycling • Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/detroit-area-startup-sees-gold-in-printer-cartridge-recycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Detroit -Area Startup Sees Gold in Printer Cartridge Recycling • Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta 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