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Printer Toner Recycled into Fingerprint Powder

In a world full of answers on how to recycle just roughly everything under the sun there are always clever people who just go on the far side traditional means. Over and over you hear about why you should recycle your printer cartridges from trying to save the enviroment to being able to save money and so forth. Even with todays applied science the most overlooked resourses often get over looked.

Angus Carnie of 300 Recycling recently noted that he has had a fantastic response from all over the world for his solution to reprocess toner powder as forensic fingerprint powder.

Just as many people would assume to recycle a printer toner cartridge would mean you take it apart and then rebuild it for resale. But with the new application of using it as a dust for the removal of fingerprints at a crime scene is just noteworthy not only for the invention, but also for the value of recycling.

Printer and photocopier cartridges have been reused or crushed down to recover the plastic and metal components; still, the waste toner powder presented a problem due to its complicated composition. Carnie eventually discovered that it made an excellent core material for print powders.

“Ironically, one of the other big issues was what to do with the different colors of toner, but I found that they were ideal for identifying finger prints on dark surfaces such as car dashboards,\” With yellow toner on a black background it makes for a very distinct print.

Think doubly if your a theif. If you thought you were smart enough to get away clean think again. One step ahead is the law and in their hand is recycled printer toner from probably your toner cartridge you threw away.

KING OF EXPENSIVE PRINTER CARTRIDGES – Greed seems to be the focus and figuring out more ways to maximize their profits are only one of HP’s many tactics if you are unfortunate enough to own one of their printers.

HP not being content with overcharging for ink , the computer, printer producer apparently regionalises its printer cartridges as one user found out. The unfortunate person in question, Michelle Sullivan, from Malta, Austrialia bought an HP Photosmart C7180 printer, but was shocked when she couldn’t purchase printer cartridges after she moved to Malta.

The problem wasn’t due to regional unavailability, but rather it was down to HP’s decision to create specific cartridges for different regions for the same printer.

The surprised and bewildered Ms Sullivan went to great lengths to find out whether this apparent HP policy was actually true. After questioning the HP dealer in Malta, who told her that HP ink cartridges were regionalised, Ms Sullivan then had a chat with an online HP support agent.

Unsurprised at the reaction she received was less than helpful, with the HP agent suggesting that Ms Sullivan try Bestbuy or Walmart, not realising that neither of these retailers has stores in Malta.

HP has in the past put some rather questionable restrictions on its printing products. A number of its toner cartridges had lock out features that include page count chips that would stop the printer after a certain number of pages had been printed, regardless of whether there was still toner left in the printer cartridge. You would have thought HP learned a valuable lesson when Lexmark introduced the lockout chip, lost a 13 million dollar lawsuit against the remanufacturing association. But HP’s page counting chips grew from HP’s corporate greed.

This sorry saga has left Ms Sullivan with a six-month old HP Photosmart C7180 printer that is effectively useless because the printer cartridges are unavailable merely because she decided to move.

At press time HP has yet to respond to our questions on this matter.