The Transformation of Sunbury Cross 4/7 Shepperton Firm’s Sustainable Printing

By Monica Jones

With focus on the environment, we all need to look at ways of cutting back on waste. Did you know that 65 million printer cartridges were purchased in the UK last year alone? 85% of disused cartridges will end up in landfill, with chemicals leaking into the earth, and the polymer material they are made of taking 1000 years to break down. That is shocking. Add to that the fact that £68m of printers are sold each year in the UK, and that it is cheaper to replace them than to repair them. What an ecological shocker! So having spent 40 years in the printer business, and seen the waste that is created by it, local businessman Tony Harrison spent lockdown rethinking the printing business and has come up with a genius green business plan. His company Printercare will take faulty business printers and repair them to ‘as new’ standard. He will then supply them to eligible businesses at NO COST TO THEM, charging only a modest installation fee. He takes refillable original toner cartridges and remanufactures them ‘as new’. He will also provide businesses with these cartridges FREE. So what is the catch? No catch. Just a different way of thinking. A business will be charged by Printercare a ‘per printed sheet’ charge. So you pay for what you use. For a business, this will work out at about 50% less than the costs of buying and running a printer and buying original cartridges. It is a win/win. Printercare becomes a fully sustainable printer supply company. Furthermore, through a globally certified reforestation programme, Printercare offsets the environmental impact of each page printed and every KW/h consumed and all CO2 emitted by the device. Most of us run printers at home and know how expensive replacement cartridges are. So how many of us opt for ‘compatible’ models? The answer is, many of us. But how many of us realise that these 3rd party cartridges are invariably NOT recyclable? By trying to save money, we end up adding to the waste problem. More good news in this model created by Printercare is that there is no long-term contract. Even better, when the printer is no longer needed, Printercare will collect it after a notice period and where possible remanufacture it to as new standard ready for another customer. Printercare believes this is the first printer supply offering of the circular economy’. Tony says “I would be tempted to say that if a company is not part of the solution, then they are part of the problem”. So why not see if you can make a difference to the planet and try this sustainable method of running printers in your firm?

Printercare Ltd Terminal House, Station Approach Shepperton, TW17 8AS Tel 020 3287 8511/ 07834 08412