Yeah the title is a bit unfortunate, but I think this is interesting news. As an aisde, it seems really wasteful to attach a semiconductor to a disposable/consumable item in the first place...
It's OK. The cartridges are labeled as recyclable, which means (as with a lot of recyclable stuff) it just get sent to India or China by the boatload.
Then someone digs through said random stuff, finds the cartridges, extracts the chips, sells them, feeds their family, and then after market Chinese clone makers use the legit chips to make knockoffs.
So, outside of the cost of shipping this stuff all around the world, and that the recycling just ends up in the trash in another country, it all works out in the end.
* edit.. I notice downvotes, but there have been endless news stories of how recycled trash is sorted, and often categorically sold to specialty companies to deal with. And, how said companies just ship that trash, by the boatload, to India or what not.
And yes, how after usable parts are extracted, it just goes into a landfill.
One big horror is how housing in Canada, has asbesto removed, which ends up going through this same process. A local recycling company just ships it all overseas, and youtube videos show people in India manually working with it, no masks, no protection gear.
Recycling is good. Recycling without a 100% traceable path, is feel goodz, without follow through and is often worse than not even recycling.
Regardless of how well it is recycled, it is worse as putting these parts can be avoided totally. There is no real need for these chips. Just sell your printers in real price and don’t monetize with inks.
Then someone digs through said random stuff, finds the cartridges, extracts the chips, sells them, feeds their family, and then after market Chinese clone makers use the legit chips to make knockoffs.
So, outside of the cost of shipping this stuff all around the world, and that the recycling just ends up in the trash in another country, it all works out in the end.
* edit.. I notice downvotes, but there have been endless news stories of how recycled trash is sorted, and often categorically sold to specialty companies to deal with. And, how said companies just ship that trash, by the boatload, to India or what not.
And yes, how after usable parts are extracted, it just goes into a landfill.
One big horror is how housing in Canada, has asbesto removed, which ends up going through this same process. A local recycling company just ships it all overseas, and youtube videos show people in India manually working with it, no masks, no protection gear.
Recycling is good. Recycling without a 100% traceable path, is feel goodz, without follow through and is often worse than not even recycling.