Melton and Moorabool residents are doing their part to help the environment and the economy, donating more than 15,000 printer cartridges to be recycled and reused.
It’s been a historic year for the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark campaign, where a record 3.5 million cartridges were recycled across the country last year.
The program aims to divert the 34 million cartridges from landfill, where they can take up to 1000 years to break down.
In Melton, Officeworks and two Australia Post offices joined the campaign, raking in 13,067 cartridges.
Planet Ark recycling programs manager Ryan Collins said aluminum, steel and up to six different types of plastic can be retrieved from used printer cartridges. The recycled material can, in turn, be used to make a range of products, including pens, rulers, garden beds and TonerPave – a road sealant. More than 900 kilometres of roads across the country have been paved with the sealant.
“It doesn’t make good business sense to send useful and valuable materials to landfill when they can be salvaged and directed back into the economy,” Mr Collins said.
“We’re particularly proud of the fact that the program has consistently achieved zero waste to landfill every year.”
