Did you know 80 per cent of ink cartridges are thrown in the rubbish? That equates to over 45 million annually in the UK alone. Sir Bob Russell meets Becky Baines, who set up The Ink Bin in April 2019. Determined to play her part and come up with a sustainable solution, Becky’s fledgling business recycles cartridges and there are now drop-off bins across the UK, including plenty here in north Essex
ABOUT one million ink cartridges for home printers are bought every week in the United Kingdom.
It is a figure that has grown over the past year, with more people working from home and home schooling, because of the Covid-19 regulations.
An estimated 80 per cent of them are thrown into the waste system and dumped in landfill sites, where they take hundreds of years to decompose.
However, one enterprising young mother in north Essex has developed her own small business to recycle tens of thousands of empty cartridges and it has proved very successful.
Most can be refilled by a specialist company she sends them to and they are then sold as remanufactured ink cartridges.
Two years ago, Becky Baines became aware of the huge problem of ink cartridges being thrown away when they are empty and started her own small-scale, pioneering business alongside her job as a special needs teacher.
She called her fledgling business The Ink Bin.
Such has been the success since April 2019, she is now set to go full-time with the collection of home-use ink cartridges by urging schools and supermarkets to have one of her cartridge collecting boxes for pupils and customers to dispose of their cartridges.
Not just because of environmental reasons, which was and still are her original intentions, but because it is also a fundraiser for a local school or charity.
Becky lives at Chappel and has a unit in a converted farm building at nearby Bures.
Boxes of used cartridges are couriered to her home from as far away as Devon, Dumfries, in Scotland, and Abergavenny, in Wales.
In Leicester, she has developed links with more than 40 schools in the city.
Nearer to home, there are collecting boxes at Sainsbury’s supermarket at Stanway and in Co-op branches at West Mersea, Wivenhoe and Earls Colne.
Proceeds from the Co-op stores go respectively to West Mersea Lions Club, Tendring Primary School and Earls Colne Scouts.
Hard at work - Becky Baines at her workbench, sorting through another batch of empty ink cartridges
There are Ink Bins in Emmaus Colchester’s charity shops in High Street.
Around a dozen schools in the Colchester area also have collection boxes and Becky hopes other schools will also wish to participate.
Sales of the cartridges benefit school funds.
Word about The Ink Bin has spread widely in environmental recycling circles and, across the UK, more than 200 schools have her distinctive cardboard boxes for people to put their empty ink cartridges – each one with the school logo or other distinctive poster which Becky designs, together with The Ink Bin logo including the words “keeping the world colourful”.
Her artistic talent is no surprise.
She graduated from the University of Essex where she studied Contemporary Latin American Art.
After this she taught at Earls Colne Primary School before the birth of her two sons, both of whom attend local primary schools.
She now works as a special needs teacher each morning, using the afternoons, evenings and weekends to develop her business from a one-woman operation to the point where she has the momentum to go full-time – and grow, with the employment of at least one person by the summer as the next step.
The Ink Bin does not collect the bigger toner cartridges used by commerce and others.
That is a different market for which the user should return cartridges to the manufacturer.
Spreading the word - Becky Baines with members of the “eco club” at St John’s Church of England Primary School, Colchester
The Ink Bin only deals with ink cartridges used in home printers.
Not all cartridges can be recycled.
The unsuitable ones are sorted into a separate container for eventual breaking up into pellets to be sold to companies who re-use plastic material.
Becky said: “Ink cartridges can be likened to a refillable water bottle.
“They are extremely easy to refill and send back to the market as remanufactured ink cartridges.
“Some can be refilled up to six times.
“It is important that we reuse the plastics and metals within the cartridges rather than discard the material.
“I want to make a point about the earth’s natural resources running out and the need to return to what is called a circular economy.
“I feel there is not enough public awareness that ink cartridges can be recycled.”
Drop-off point - The Ink Bin box for recycling ink cartridges, in support of Mersea Island Lions Club, located at West Mersea Co-op
It is a labour-intensive activity to sort through all the different types of home-use ink cartridges.
Becky then couriers them to a specialist company to be refilled, before they are sold to shops.
Becky explained that she had started The Ink Bin because she was “frustrated with funding cuts in schools, as well as the media coverage of our climate emergency”.
The Ink Bin began as an eco-fundraising business for schools and charities.
With a teaching career spanning 20 years, Becky is putting all that experience to good use because, in addition to recycling ink cartridges, The Ink Bin also operates “Eco-Kids”, which is a forum designed for busy school teachers who wish to establish eco-clubs within school.
“We produce weekly newsletters which are emailed to our schools, but are also free to anyone to access online,” said Becky.
The Ink Bin and Eco-Kids sponsor the Eco Colchester Festival.
Further details about The Ink Bin can be obtained HERE or by e-mailing recycle@theinkbin.co.uk
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