Printer ink is not as dull as you may think it is, and there are many interesting facts out there. We have found some of the most interesting and useful facts about printer ink and shared them for you below. We are confident you will find them as fascinating as we did!
Contents
1. Printer Ink is Valuable
None of us like that printer ink costs lots to replace but did you know that printer ink costs approximately £7000 or $9200 per gallon! This puts it as more expensive than luxury goods like champagne, and it shows no sign of dropping in value as it is in such high demand. The next time you print a page of paper stop and consider if it really is worth more than a lovely cold glass of bubbles!
2. Ink Uses Oil
When you insert your new ink cartridge stop and think about the fact that each cartridge uses around 4 litres of oil to be produced! That figure includes the process of making the cartridge and moving it to stores. This is a scary figure in a time where we are all trying to reduce our carbon footprint! One school of thought suggests that if we all purchased compatible ink cartridges, then we would reduce that figure by half as these cartridges contain more ink than the original replacements and so will use less oil per household.
3. The Number of Cartridges Thrown Away is Mammoth
There are printer cartridge recycling schemes all over the world, and while many of us use these services regularly; there are still too many being thrown away into landfill. The current estimation states that the number of cartridges that are discarded could circle the earth over three times! Imagine the number of cartridges it would take to do it and how much of the earth’s landfill must be in use because people forget to recycle. Environmentalists are urging people to recycle their HP cartridges so that they can be reused and we’d have to agree that this is a great idea!
4. Different Fonts Use Different Amounts of Ink
It’s logical when you stop and think about it, but each font uses different amounts of ink. Arial, the most used font, uses far more ink that Calibri and the most economical font is Garamond. Garamond was named after Claude Garamond who was a French printer. He invented the font with ink conservation in mind, and it remains a popular choice today.
5. Not All Ink Cartridges Are For Paper
Most of us buy printer ink to print out important documents or household information that we need to store. However, edible ink is a real thing, and you can get ink cartridges that are filled with edible ink. This type of ink is used to print images and words directly onto food; typically on fondant icing that is used to decorate cupcakes or ice large party cakes.
Who knew that ink could be so exciting? The next time you nip out to get a new cartridge take a moment to stop and think about the journey it has been on as well as how you can make the most of the ink you purchase and keep an eye out for printed fondant icing; we are pretty sure it tastes great!
