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Analysis | Printer ink is a scam. Here’s how to spend less. (wapo.st)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Washington Post: Americans waste $10 billion each year on name-brand ink. So we tested low-cost options including remanufactured cartridges, ink injection kits — and even making our own.

My advice: get a mono laser printer. Printing is handy but relatively infrequent for a lot of people these days. If that's your use case, mono laser is the way to go. Toner does not dry out or go bad.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I have a Brother laser printer that works fine since undergrad. $100, almost 15 years ago. Good colors still, but it came with this thing where you have to block it at the firewall from the Internet so it doesn't spy on you (something about reporting to Amazon servers?) and it will pretend that your toner is low on purpose, but you can cover up the sensor with electrical tape and it works fine. Prints with Linux, BSD.

I also have a Canon inkjet. I was on a trip and needed a printer and ... $25 dollars out of pocket, I ended up with a device that has scanning and color printing and works with Linux. Five years later and it still works, although the aftermarket cartridges I use are $33, more than the printer itself cost. There's no DRM making me buy just Canon ink. Works with Linux.

After reading that Epson was getting out of the laser printer business altogether for environmental reasons, I called BS on it. Likely a reason for them to sell nothing but DRM'd junk inkjets that are even more wasteful because they break every other year.

But the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Laser printers are also horrible for the environment. The fusers and toner cartridges cannot be recycled and the toner itself is nothing but microplastic that never breaks down.

I hope to never buy a printer again. Fuck that anymore, It's the 21st century, I have a PDF editor and a tablet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is good to know. I had no idea toner is so bad for the environment. It's yet another reason to use ink tank printers.