Costco Ink Refills: Superlow Price So
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Some people go to Costco to buy 30 rolls of Charmin; some go to buy a couple hundred Oreos in one package. As PCWorld’s Serial Refiller, I go to Costco when I need cheap, easy ink–though the free food samples are a nice bonus, too.
I can’t afford to replenish my printer with the original vendor’s , so I’ve set out to try third-party options–including remanufacturers, refill services, and do-it-yourself refill kits–and tell you whether the savings seem worth the hassle. In my experiences so far, the do-it-yourself refill kit offered the best cost per page and output quality, but caused the most mess. When I tried Office Depot remanufactured cartridges, they provided paltry savings and underwhelming output quality. Of the options I’ve looked at, Costco’s onsite refilling service offered the best balance, saving me more than half the cost over the OEM’s ink, with little effort and decent results.
What Types Of Ink Cartridges Does Walgreens Refill
Walgreens fills cartridges for inkjet printers. It can refill both black-ink cartridges and colored-ink cartridges, so you need to specify which type your printer is while handing your cartridge over for refilling.
Additionally, Walgreens is able to fill ink cartridges for printer brands including Canon, Lexmark, HP, Brother, Epson, Fuji, Samsung, and more.
How Long Does It Take To Have Your Ink Cartridge Refilled At Walgreens
Walgreens mentions that your ink cartridge will be refilled within an hour of submission. Therefore, when you visit a Walgreens store, you can simply head over to the photo lab first and give the employee your ink cartridge for refilling.
After that, you can get your prescriptions filled and buy everything else you need. By the time you come back, it is likely that your cartridge will have been refilled.
Note that the standard one hour waiting time is just a safe estimate. If there are no other refills in the queue, you might even get your cartridge back within 10 minutes.
However, if there is a long queue or the machine is temporarily unavailable, you will have to wait for longer than that.
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Samsung Ink & Toner Recycling
Samsung supports manufacturer responsibility and responsible recycling. As a subsidiary of HP, Samsung follows many of the same recycling procedures. HP Planet Partners Program is HPs recycling program for computer equipment and printing supplies.
To begin recycling Samsung ink and toner cartridges, follow these steps:
Method one: Drop it off
;Method two: Mail it in
Click here to learn more about Samsung ink and toner recycling.
Can You Take Ink From One Cartridge And Put It In Another

If the cartridge in your printer is out of ink and you do not have a new cartridge on hand for the printer, you can make a temporary fix by transferring the ink from another cartridge. You can also transfer the ink to another cartridge if you have a damaged cartridge that doesnt work in your printer.
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The Results: Good Enough
After all that fuss, the pages I printed with the Office Depot inks looked pretty good. When I held the Office Depot-printed pages beside their HP counterparts, however, I noticed visible differences in print quality. Overall, HP’s black output was noticeably darker, and text appeared bolder and sharper. Skin tones were smoother, and colors seemed more vibrant. Naturally, your subjective impressions of print quality may vary. If good enough is, well, good enough, Office Depot’s ink could be a reasonable alternative.
I also dripped some water across both samples. As expected, each set exhibited streaking and color bleeding, but Office Depot’s ink fared no worse than HP’s.
Page yields were a draw: Office Depot’s rebuilt tanks lasted 134 pages, compared with 132 for the HP inks. Based on those page yields, I paid 27 cents per page to print with the printer maker’s standard-size HP 60 cartridges; with Office Depot’s inks, I spent a little less, at 22 cents per page.
Buying remanufactured cartridges from Office Depot saved me a few bucks, as well as the trouble of refilling the tanks myself. I lost a little print quality along the way, however. If satisfactory output meets your needs, Office Depot’s inks deliver–but the better results of HP’s own cartridges are just a few dollars away. Of the two third-party ink alternatives I’ve tried so far, the Inktec do-it-yourself refill kit is cheaper by a long shot.
How To Recycle Ink Cartridges
More than 500 million printer cartridges are sold each year in the United States, and more than half 350 million of those are sent to landfills. Toner cartridges are both recyclable and reusable, so more eco-friendly options for disposal exist. There are two main choices for keeping printer cartridges out of landfills: recycling and refilling them.
If you want to refill your ink cartridges, there are two options. You can bring them to a retailer for this service for example, participating Walgreens and Costco stores clean and refill cartridges in the photo department. You can also refill them on your own following these steps:
If you want to recycle your ink cartridges, use the Earth911 recycling locator to find options in your area.
Not sure whether refilling or recycling is the right option for you? Read on in our FAQs to see when each situation makes the most sense.
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Does Staples Give Credit For Used Ink Cartridges
cartridgescartridgesused inktoner cartridgestaplescartridge
Ink Recycling Rewards: Members can recycle any ink or toner cartridge, up to 20 per calendar month per customer, and, if the Member has spent at least $30 in ink and/or toner purchases at Staples over the previous 180 days, the Member will receive $2 back in Staples Rewards per cartridge.
who buys empty printer cartridges? If you are going to recycle your printer supplies, sell them to TonerBuyer.com. We will recycle your used ink and toner cartridges and pay you up to $22 each for those empty printer cartridges. We buy over 400 different make and model empty cartridges and surplus new supplies for printers, copiers and faxes.
Beside this, does Office Depot give credit for used ink cartridges?
Office Depot® OfficeMax® Recycling Rewards: $2 back in rewards is earned for each recycled cartridge up to 10 per month. We do not accept damaged cartridges.
What can I do with unused printer cartridges?
You have three choices for disposing of unused and empty ink jet and laser printer, fax or copier cartridges.
Can I Get Money For Empty Ink Cartridges
If you are wondering why it seems more profitable to recycle ink cartridges than say your aluminum cans, its because accepting your used cartridges ensures you will need to buy more. These companies will pay to buy back your used cartridges ensuring you will be purchasing new ones, at a much higher price. This is referred to as Manufacturing led recycling. Companies like HP have large programs for re-manufactured ink cartridges, up to 75% closed loop recycling is used, they even use recycled plastic hangers which are notoriously difficult to recycle. Keep this in mind when debating whether to purchase a re-manufactured ink cartridge. It is always a good idea to recycle or reuse whenever possible, as well as purchase items manufactured using previously recycled items, ensuring these programs remain profitable and hopefully leading more companies into eco-friendly production processes.
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Check Out Staples Rewards
Staples has a rewards program called Staples Rewards. You get up to 5% back in rewards, and other benefits.
Whats great about the program is that it gives you $2 back in rewards for each ink cartridge you recycle. There is a minimum purchase requirement though so do keep that in mind.
- Check out Staples Rewards here.
Advantages To Refilling Cartridges
A potential issue affecting people can be the reliance on the ink you were require being in stock.
Particularly when a deadline is fast approaching for a business , acquiring the correct stock within your time frame can be make or break for an assignment or business order.
Through refilling your cartridges manually, it is guaranteed to work as the body of the cartridge has already been used in the printer.
There is the environmental aspect to take into consideration as well. In the UK alone, research suggests that almost 50 million empty cartridges find their way into landfill sites every year. These are cartridges which could take up to a thousand years to decompose. Additionally, by refilling ink cartridges, the UK could save up to 15 million litres of oil per year.
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New Printer Cartridge Or A Refill Either Way Ink Is Getting Cheaper
By Damon Darlin
Bill Powell, a sports photographer in Tulsa, Okla., shoots high school and college games and sells his work to the players and their parents.
He prints on a Canon Pixma photo printer, but he does not use Canon ink. For the last eight months he has been buying refilled cartridges from Cartridge World. “I couldn’t tell the difference, and my customers couldn’t tell the difference,” Mr. Powell said. “It saves me about 50 percent.”
On the face of it, the logic of buying refilled ink cartridges seems pretty obvious. A new HP 26A cartridge, for use in about two dozen Hewlett-Packard printers, costs $29 at Staples. Buy a $21 Staples-brand remanufactured unit and you save 28 percent. Go to Cartridge World and you pay $18.39, a 37 percent discount.
Walgreens is installing cartridge refilling machines in the photo department of 1,500 of its 5,120 drugstores. Office Depot is testing the same kiosks in Charlotte, N.C., and Minneapolis. These machines, called the Ink-O-Dem, cost about $40,000 and can refill a cartridge in about 2.5 minutes. “We cut out the middlemen,” said Harry Nicodem, chief executive of TonerHead, the maker of the kiosk.
The automation gives Walgreens a price advantage: its HP 26A is $14.50.
Hewlett-Packard executives argue that you are wasting your money with refills, which is what you might expect the company to say. Manufacturers have a lot riding on a business model in which they sell ink cartridges that can cost a third of what the printer did.
Brother Ink Cartridge Recycling

Got empty Brother ink cartridges to recycle?
The process is still the same reuse the shipping box your ink cartridges came in to ship them back!
First, youll need to create an online account with Brother. This will let you print a USPS SmartLabel. Attach the label to your package, seal it up, and drop it off at any U.S. Postal Service mailbox or post office. Shipping is on Brother!
To learn more about recycling Brother printer cartridges for cash .
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Office Depot Brand Pre
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Check In-Store Availability
Specially formulated for re-inking pre-inked stamps
- Provides consistent crisp impressions every time.
- Black refill ink is ideal for use in Office Depot message stamps.
- Pre-ink refill ink comes in a pack of 2.
How Much Does It Cost To Refill Ink Cartridges At Walgreens
Walgreens does refill ink cartridges at locations that have a photo lab as of 2021. Walgreens can refill inkjet cartridges for HP, Fuji, Canon, Samsung, Epson, Brother, and Lexmark printers. The cost of the service is $10 for black-ink cartridges and $25 for colored-ink cartridges and takes less than an hour.
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What To Do With Unused Printer Ink Cartridges
As already mentioned above, you can simply sell them.
Unused print cartridges that are in the original packaging and within the expiration date listed on the packaging can be easily sold online.
If your unused printer ink cartridges are out of the original packaging or out of date, they should be recycled using either a manufacturer lead recycling program, a non-manufacturer mail-back program, or dropped off at an office supply store.
Does Office Depot Refill Printer Cartridges
The stores 13 OD640WN is an HP 60 black cartridge filled with Office Depots house-brand ink. Thank you you will now be redirected to comparisons.
280ml 4 Color Printer Ink Cartridge With Permanent Chip For Hp 10 82 For Hp Designjet 500 500ps 800 800ps Prin Printer Ink Cartridges Ink Cartridge Printer Ink
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Can You Just Throw Away Ink Cartridges
If Throwing Ink Toner Cartridges Away in the Trash is the Only Option. While in most cases its not illegal to throw away used ink toner cartridges, it is not the most environmentally friendly way to dispose of toxic waste. Insert the used ink toner cartridge into the original packaging and close it.
Places That Refill Printer Ink Cartridges
Cost-conscious business owners looking for an effective way to save a buck should consider reusing their workplace’s empty printer cartridges. Having your old cartridges refilled is considerably less costly than replacing the cartridges and buying new ones. It can save your business a considerable amount of money in the long run — particularly if you and your employees do a fair amount of printing. In addition, there is no shortage of places to have your empty cartridges refilled.
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Lexmark Ink & Toner Recycling
Lexmark offers free and easy cartridge recycling and has since 1991. Lexmark offers environmentally sound choices for recycling its ink and toner cartridges and disposing of its end-of-life hardware, like printers, scanners, and other peripherals.
Click here to learn more about Lexmark ink and toner recycling.;
You can ship multiple empty Lexmark cartridges in a single box. Click here to print a free shipping label.
Here is the official step-by-step video on recycling Lexmark printer cartridges:
To learn more about recycling Lexmark printer cartridges for cash .
Refill Your Printer Cartridge

Draw ink into the syringe slowly and inject it into the hole. That’s it!Some important tips:1. The needle size is very small. If you draw ink into the syringe too quickly, you can create air-gaps. Air gaps can block your ink cartridge. So make sure that there are no air bubbles, before you inject ink through the hole. 2. Refilling is a messy job. Make sure you have a piece of paper/waste cloth. The image has a clean background only to make it look good! 3. I was advised to fill the cartridge to near-capacity and not full. i.e., my cartridge’s capacity is 19ml. So I filled it to about 13ml. Probably this is to prevent leakage.4. Once, the cartridge is filled, it should be allowed to set for a few hours. This lets the ink to settle at the bottom of the sponge. The sponge is located inside the cartridge & cannot be seen. P.S. Sorry for the poor image quality in this instructable. I ruined it by putting the camera too close to the objects.Acknowledgement: I was “taught” to fill ink by my neighbor Sridhar. Thanks very much!
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How Do You Dispose Of Ink Cartridges
The thing is, toner cartridge recycling is a more responsible, sustainable way to deal with your empties, and its easier to do than ever before. You can recycle them by: Dropping them off at a retailer.Where to recycle toner cartridges
Oki Ink & Toner Recycling
Okidatas partnership with COREFIDO allows you to recycle Oki toner cartridges, image drums, transfer belts, and fusers.
Click here to learn more about Oki ink and toner recycling.
You can check out a short video on recycling Oki toner cartridges here:
To recycle Oki toner cartridges, follow the instructions below:;;
- Remove the used cartridge from the printer.
- Seal it in the bag your new OKI cartridge came in. Its important to seal the plastic bag tightly to prevent leakage.;;
- Place the used cartridge into the new cartridge box. Only pack one empty cartridge per box to prevent damage during shipment.
- Tape the box closed.
- Return to an authorized OKI Data returns location or ship to:
OKIDATA RECLAMATION CENTER
To learn more about recycling Panasonic printer cartridges for cash .
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Easy Ways To Save On Printer Ink
6 Easy Ways to Save on Printer Ink
When I think about all the ink I use to print my coupons, I cringe. Here are six super-easy ways to save money on printer ink by cutting those costs by as much as 87% and shopping smarter when you buy a printer. The printing industry makes most of their money on the ink that you have to buy for your printer, and not the printer itself, because printer ink is one of the worlds most expensive liquids, costing between $13 and $75 per ounce.
When you buy a new printer, it isnt about the price, but the cost per page of the ink it uses. Look for printers that use cartridges with a CPP of less than $0.04.
CPP = the price of ink divided by how many pages it will print + the cost of paper.
For example, one cartridge of Canon black ink for the Canon TS302 Wireless Inkjet Printer is $15.99 and yields about 180 pages, which costs about $5.40 in paper, so the cost per page is just under $0.11; way too high.
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