Date: 06-Jun-18
Author: Claire Bell

In 2003 the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark campaign was born and seven times world surfing champion Layne Beachley has been our ambassador since the beginning. 15 years and over 38 million cartridges recycled later, the campaign is more successful than ever.

Diverting cartridges from landfill has been one of Planet Ark’s biggest recycling success stories. A leading example of product stewardship in action, with participating manufacturers and partner Close the Loop, recycling cartridges achieves zero waste to landfill.

Layne Beachley celebrated her 15 years as an ambassador for Planet Ark by joining a group of teenagers, who were also born in 2003, from Cromer High School, NSW. Layne and the group had fun making a new TV advert for the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark campaign which reflects on how much they’ve grown since they were babies and how much the campaign has grown and become the success it is over the past 15 years.

Layne Beachley and students from Cromer High School TV ad:

Since 2003, Australians, through workplace collection boxes, retailer and council drop-off locations have contributed to the success of the program which keeps on growing year after year. The technology keeps growing too, with more end products, to give used cartridges a second life. Along with eWood garden beds and Enviroliner™ pens, waste toner from cartridges is also used in a road surface called TonerPlas™, which has recently incorporated plastic bags and stockpiled glass into its content. A new favourite product recently developed by Melbourne based Lousy Ink is 100% recycled artists ink. Made from the waste ink from inkjet cartridges, it is bottled and sold to budding creatives who care about good quality ink and sustainability.

So, here’s to the next 15 years of the campaign. To help keep it growing, sign up for a free collection box for your workplace or find your nearest drop-off location at cartridges.planetark.org.

A special thank you to:

• Ambassador Layne Beachley 
• Our resource recovery partner Close the Loop.
• Participating manufacturers: Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Konica Minolta and Kyocera.
• Our retail collection partners: Officeworks, Australia Post, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Harvey Norman, Office National.

Without their support, the program wouldn’t be possible.