The Right Way to Dispose of an Old Printer

That bulky old printer gathering dust in your closet still contains valuable materials that shouldn’t end up in a landfill. Safely disposing of e-waste like printers requires special handling to avoid environmental contamination. At Scrapcity, we make printer recycling easy at our locations in Pompano Beach and Delray Beach, Florida.

Printers contain toxic substances like lead and mercury, but also recoverable metals and plastics. By bringing old printers to us for recycling, you can avoid waste while earning cash payouts. In this article, we’ll look at why it’s important to recycle printers, how to prepare them for disposal, and what our transparent recycling process entails.

The Environmental Impact of Printers

Printers are a ubiquitous part of modern life, used in homes and offices to print documents, photos, and more. But these machines also have an environmental dark side when disposed of improperly.

On average, the United States discards over 375,000 printers every day. When sent to landfills, chemicals like mercury and lead can leach out and contaminate groundwater. If incinerated, printer plastics release toxic fumes and gases. Improper disposal also wastes valuable resources contained in printers.

However, recycling old printers reduces their environmental impact. Recovering steel, aluminum, copper, and plastics decreases the need for new resource extraction. Recycling also cuts down on energy use and emissions associated with printer manufacturing. Considering Americans replace their printers every 4-5 years, proper disposal is essential.

Preparing Your Printer for Recycling

Before bringing old printers into Scrapcity Pompano Beach or Delray Beach, some preparation helps maximize their value:

  • Remove any paper or debris
  • Take out toner cartridges if possible
  • Cut the power cord a few inches from the printer
  • Separate any batteries or ink cartridges
  • Remove any disks or CDs

Leave printers intact apart from these steps. Dismantling them further makes recycling components more difficult. Our technicians will safely disassemble printers at our facilities.

If you have an extremely old printer containing mercury, extra precautions are needed for disposal. Let our team know upon arrival. We have specialized processes for safely extracting and containing the mercury from these rarer vintage printers.

The Benefits of Printer Recycling

Beyond keeping hazardous e-waste out of landfills, bringing old printers to Scrapcity for recycling provides other advantages:

  • Earn cash: We pay competitive prices for scrap printers based on their material value. This passive income helps offset upgrade costs over time.
  • Conserve resources: Recovering steel, copper, aluminum, gold, and plastics from printers reduces the need for new resource mining. This preserves natural habitats.
  • Reduce pollution: Recycling printers prevents hazardous substances like mercury from contaminating ecosystems and groundwater when landfilled.
  • Save energy: Extracting and processing raw metals for printer manufacturing consumes huge amounts of electricity. Recycling printers requires far less energy.
  • Create jobs: The recycling industry employs hundreds of thousands in the U.S. Recycling printers supports green jobs in our communities.
  • Avoid waste: Printers contain valuable and hazardous materials. Recycling them reduces waste while giving components renewed purpose.

Choosing to recycle old printers with Scrapcity keeps valuable commodities in use while minimizing landfill waste and environmental damage. This protects natural resources for the good of future generations.

How Our Printer Recycling Process Works

When you bring printers into either Scrapcity location, here is what you can expect:

  • Estimate and quote: Our specialists will assess each printer and provide a fair, transparent quote for recycling value based on weight and commodity prices.
  • Accept payment: If satisfied with the quote, we pay cash or check immediately. This convenient compensation makes recycling easy.
  • Safely dismantle: We disassemble printers in our secure facility, following all safety protocols to contain toxic materials.
  • Sort and process: Metals, plastics, and parts are sorted, cleaned, and prepared for commodity buyers to repurpose.
  • Recycle components: We work with recycling partners to give printer components renewed life in new products instead of landfilling them.
  • Dispose of toxins: Any hazardous wastes are properly stored for disposal by licensed environmental companies. Printer mercury is especially safely contained.
  • View the process: Our recycling centers have viewing areas to watch dismantling and sorting firsthand through safety glass.

The Scrapcity chain upholds transparency and accountability throughout the recycling process. By working with us, you can be confident your old electronics are disposed of responsibly while you receive fair compensation.

Building a Sustainable Future Together

That old dot matrix printer has more value than you think. Bring it to Scrapcity Pompano Beach or Delray Beach to turn unwanted electronics into cash without wasting precious resources. Recycling printers and other e-waste properly is one small way we can take responsibility for reducing waste.

If printer recycling isn’t convenient or profitable enough, most old electronics end up in landfills damaging the planet. Scrapcity aims to make the process easy, accessible, and rewarding. We view sustainability not just as an environmental initiative but an ethical obligation to care for shared global resources.

Let’s work collectively toward a zero-waste economy by giving used items renewed purpose. Your old printers can build toward a cleaner, healthier future when recycled properly. We look forward to partnering with our community to cycle resources responsibly

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