In recent years a whole series of events have occurred in the printing world that can only be considered catastrophic.
And it is in a threefold aspect: Ecological – Sanitary, Social Responsibility . Let’s start with the environmental catastrophe
One concerns the machines themselves, their more than questionable durability, and the “sales targets” that cause this equipment to reach barely 20 percent of its life…
It’s like throwing away cars with 70,000 KM.
But we will focus much more on the cartridge , since it is this element that determines to a greater extent the ecological impacts e on health , as well as those of competition and social impacts .
Every year in Europe, about 505 million cartridges are sold. , according to data provided to the European Commission by the Oakdene Hollins Report on Cartridge Reuse.
The figure can be considered relatively stable in recent years even though, as the study shows, manufacturers have been remiss in providing verifiable data.
And here the catastrophe begins; why don’t the Builders detect and inform?
Not to find out that their alleged green effort is not true, showing the poor effort in recovery and treatment of their waste, which is also highlighted in the above study.
But we will continue
With these approximate figures, the market 10 years ago had a Regeneration usage share of about 18% and Clone cartridges were only 2-3%.
With all the winds in favor of Reconstruction and Sustainability, what does the market look like today?

Well, of the approximately 42 million cartridges sold per month in Europe, 1.8 million are remanufactured , this is just 5 percent, while the number of clones reaches 2.7 million , or 6.4 percent …
This means that 13% of cartridges (18%-5%) are no longer reused and have become waste…
This has naturally led to the closure of many businesses in the sector and the loss of jobs:
This means that each month waste generation increased ( with a core weight value of 200 grams, toner and ink on average) by 5.46 million cartridges per 200 grams. This means something more than 1 million kilograms that were not previously generated.
But this is still not the worst figure, because we have to add the clones, which are a case in point.
These cloned cartridges , which enter the market in a massive and uncontrolled manner, represent waste totaling 1.5 million kilograms per month.
The total increase in waste is thus more than 1.5 million kilograms per month.
Waste that is now considered e-waste and has a destruction period of 1,000 years.
In this way, cartridges, their parts and contents will seep into our groundwater for centuries.
If the reader is already frightened, he or she should wait and read the sequel.
The clones coming on the market are more than dangerous, highly toxic .
Several tests confirm that emission limits are continuously exceeded during printing.
During some tests, more than 53 percent emitted more styrene in the toner fusion than the allowed limit, more than 60 percent emitted more ultrafine particles than required by law (these particles are extremely toxic because their size allows them to enter the bloodstream directly regardless of their composition). and also 100% emitted more volatile organic substances than allowed by law. So “Great” for our health!
If this is not enough for the authorities to take it seriously, it turns out that none of the manufacturers/importers have a basic collection system so that the final destination of the empty clones is…. let’s see what.
What can they do with these cases? Well, practically nothing, because their manufacturing quality is so low that it is impossible to process or reuse them . These are single-use toxic plastic objects !
Plastic cannot be used as a raw material either, due to its poor quality and toxic content, so the only option might be to use it as an energy source, that is, to incinerate it. This, too, is not possible, because tests show that plastics contain flame retardants in a proportion six times higher than the indicated limits with extremely dangerous substances, and it would be desirable not only that they should not appear in plastics, but that if they do, the packaging should clearly mention them.
At this point readers must be thinking, What a scandal! There is more, so let’s move on to social responsibility, social catastrophe.
The European Commission itself and all national authorities know that under the current scenario, reconstruction not only avoids impacts but also generates a large number of jobs, and indeed it does.
In the field of cartridge remanufacturing, for relatively large installations, an estimated 200 people are needed to recycle 30,000 units per month, so that every 150 cartridges per month generates one job.
This figure could be even higher as more jobs are needed for smaller facilities, but we will take the unfavorable data.
So if 80 percent of the clone had been transferred to Reconstructed (and we have already seen that it would not be difficult to promote legal measures to do so; simply compliance with the law) we would find ourselves with a demand of 2.16 million cartridges per month or 14,400 direct jobs and 30 percent more indirect jobs (“From collection, to selling materials, packaging, etc.).
If the amount of rebuilt product were increased by even 20 percent, this would mean the raid of 42 million per month x 20 percent 8.4 million cartridges, or 56,000 more direct jobs. Assuming an average salary similar to Spain’s of €25,000 per year we would end up with..:14,000+56,000 = 70,000 x €25,000 = 1,750,000,000 – millions of wage bill generated
At a time when robots challenge employment, creating 70,000 jobs and put a wage bill of 1.75 billion euros in the pockets of Europeans is not bad!
We now enter the Catastrophe of Competitive Confrontation.
Here we find what we might call the “poor man’s sandwich,” a bag of bread on the top floor that presses, these are the manufacturers of new equipment and cartridges, a bag of bread on the bottom floor, in this case the clone manufacturers, and what is important, in the middle a sparsely juicy slice.
Producers, as we have already seen, prefer NOT to MEASURE so as not to be embarrassed. It is also a market where the opportunities to prevent/restrict consumers’ free choice are very high.
First of all, because of the very high concentration, as only three manufacturers monopolize 79 percent of machine sales. In comparison, the three major automakers hold only 23% of the market!
On the other hand, since this is a three-tier market, namely the device, its spare parts and service, and consumables, the possibilities for control multiply.
It is easy for them today to maintain virtually real-time control of the consumables they use, so that their FUD departments responsible for transmitting fear, uncertainty and doubt are responsible for nullifying any attempt at free choice, and practices to do so, are not uncommon, such as remote blocking, or firmware updating that threaten daring users who have tried to make a free purchase.
Not to mention all the ARUDS anti-reuse devices placed on consumables!
This is the only way to explain a reverse market, where the most expensive is the one that is sold the most!
The other part of this competitive scenario is clones.
These are only the result of China’s inability to compete fairly in Regeneration!
The quality of Chinese reconstruction and market access costs would have led to a very weak position, and the Chinese authorities have strong subsidies for printer consumables!
At this point it is clear that any factory working under such quality standards on European soil, or even just outside China, due to lower labor costs (Thailand, Vietnam, etc.) of cloned cartridges would have closed down immediately, either due to non-compliance with property rights (patents), pollution or threats to public health.
These strategies make a fair competitive scenario TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
Thus, more serious channels (wholesalers, etc.), are reluctant, and not without reason, to distribute quality rebuilt products in the certainty that they will not be able to compete with cloned products.
So the best products, say the “ham or cheese” of the sandwich, come to the market in such a way that there is no fair competition and no chance to compete fairly.
It is clear that the European industry and serious distribution channels are outnumbered, and in light of the above, how long will it take for the authorities involved to act?

Excerpted from an article by Javier Martinez Zavala Environmental engineer and ETIRA board member