Lexmark are seen by the cartridge re-manufacturing to be against the reuse of their cartridges. They have taken steps to prevent and oppose their cartridges from being recycled. How do Lexmark oppose remanufacturing? Here’s how..

Anti recycling Patent

Lexmark’s US patent # 6099101 which they use on their cartridges describes how the cartridge will ‘fry’ the printhead rendering it useless when it senses ink has dried up. This makes their cartridges impossible to remanufacture and they can only be sent to landfill; an incredibly wasteful use of resources. On top of this Lexmark put very little ink in these cartridges making them not an environmentally friendly choice of cartridge.

Wasteful

The Lexmark cartridges which come with new printers contain very little ink and will produce a few pages of A4 printing before they run out.

The cost of replacing Lexmark ink cartridges will come as a shock to many users as they usually cost more than the printer, sometimes even two times as much!

Lexmark’s No:1 cartridge contains cyan, magenta and yellow ink. It mixes them all together to give you black. It’s an incredibly expensive and wasteful way of printing with black. The cartridge is also expensive and contains little ink.

Lexmark attempt to stamp out remanufacturing and further oppose it

Lexmark’s prebate or return program scheme actively discourages recycling. How? By making you promise to return the cartridge back to Lexmark or to throw it away after use. Lexmark give you a cash incentive on the cost of their cartridges to do so. This takes the remanufacturing industry completely out of the window. Seals across their cartridge packing say that by opening it, you agree to their terms and will abide their scheme. This is another way Lexmark have devised to take out the cartridge remanufacturing industry. In the past Lexmark have threatened and taken small companies to court. Clearly they oppose people recycling their cartridges.

In some of their black cartridges, Lexmark use a chemical mixed with their ink which blocks the cartridge printhead near the end of its life making it very difficult to reuse. This is another way in which Lexmark have tried to stamp out cartridge re-manufacturing. The blocking can additionally be seen as it creates a gunge over time as it gets exposed to air.

Price Fixing

Lexmark’s No: 2, 3, 4, 5 and 108XL original cartridges are exclusively supplied to the Dixons group of companies; price fixing by controlling who can sell these cartridges. These cartridges are also sold at a premium, contain very little ink and represent poor value for money.