Last fall, PRC Technologies announced an environmental breakthrough in printing for offices, public schools and colleges.   PRC Technologies offers the first laser printer cartridges using toner powder derived from soybeans.  While the finished toner in the cartridge does not contain high organic content, the product is green because the manufacturing process is green.

And most importantly, these cartridges are cost comparable to brand name (OEM) versions currently available.   While soy ink has been available for some time, this is the first soy toner cartridge available for laser printers.

SoyPrintTM toner is made using mixtures of soybean oil and lesser amounts of other bio-oils.   The petroleum-based resin found in regular toners is not used in SoyPrint.  The toner is made using a polymerization process to obtain resin from liquid spray drying instead of the conventional or mechanical pulverizing process. 

A printer cartridge contains one pound of toner powder, and industry experts agree that it requires 2 liters of oil to make toner for a single cartridge!   U.S. businesses, schools, institutions and governments consume over 100 million cartridges per year.  Simply put, the U.S. consumes as much as 50,000 tons of petroleum-based powder each year.   Switching to soy based ink can reduce our country’s petroleum consumption by 200 million liters of oil per year.

SoyPrint cartridges are manufactured in the US and are shipped from warehouses across the country.   The product is warranted not to harm printers in any way and prints as many pages, if not more, than the oil-based version.  

The following are 4 basic steps to sustainable printing that have a huge impact on the planet.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me to assist you with: 

1. Obtaining high quality, compatible SoyPrint^TM toner cartridges,
2. Purchasing FSC certified copy paper with the highest possible percentage of post-consumer recycled content – at the most competitive prices in the industry,
3. Donating your old printers to public schools to help reduce e-waste, and
4. Carefully and efficiently recycling your empty toner cartridges.

And lastly, all of our customers that make the decision to print sustainably receive reports tracking the impact of their decision to implement sustainable printing practices.   These reports include:

• Liters of oil saved/replaced
• Pounds of heavy plastic recycled
• Reams of recycled paper consumed

Colleges and schools are automatically enrolled in the SoyPrint^TM Educational Alliance and their individual sustainability reports are included in national cumulative totals, reflecting the huge collective environmental impact of sustainable printing.

To find out if SoyPrint^TM cartridges are available for your printer, please contact me at 888-306-0830 or jeff.hix@indoff.com.   

And for more information on PRC Technologies and SoyPrint^TM cartridges, visit www.soyprint.net.