More than a million printer cartridges stored with Planet Ark recycling scheme on Pause | Recycling

Up to 1,000,000 used cartridges from printers that were returned under the Planet Ark recycling program will be stored in storage until at most the middle of next.

Planet Ark has told the Guardian the printer cartridges can’t currently be recycled because of a June fire at a recycling facility in Melbourne.

That same fire that has paused recycling at Close the Loop’s Somerton facility was also partly blamed for the closing this week of a major soft plastic recycling scheme backed by Coles and Woolworths.

REDcycle, which coordinates the collection of those soft plastics, said Wednesday Close the Loop would start accepting its soft plastics again by “early to mid next year when their processing lines are operational again”.

The Guardian has learned that 12,000 tonnes worth of soft plastic have been stored.

Planet Ark stated that businesses and the public should continue to return printer cartridges in the same way as before and that all stored cartridges would eventually end up being recycled.

A Planet Ark statement said: “Unfortunately, Close the Loop experienced a fire at their Melbourne-based recycling facility in June 2022, which has temporarily limited their ability to recycle.

“There are currently 1.1m cartridges being stored by Close the Loop, all of which will be recycled with the reopening of their recycling facility in 2023. Cartridges will continue to be collected and safely stored until the plant reopens, which is expected to be mid-2023.”

Since Cartridges 4 Planet Ark was launched in 2003, about 50.6m cartridges have been recycled “with zero waste to landfill”, the not-for-profit organisation said.

“Close the Loop is the only cartridge recycling processor in Australia with a zero waste-to-landfill capability proven over many years of operation. This zero waste-to-landfill promise remains the environmental commitment of the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark program,” Planet Ark said.

Close the Loop uses soft and ink cartridge toner powders to make TonerPlas an additive for road asphalt. But a fire at the Somerton facility’s TonerPlas manufacturing line in June has paused production.

In a statement to the ASX yesterday, Close the Loop said: “The supply of TonerPlas … is on track to resume full production by mid-2023, with a fourfold increase in the scale of the operation.”

According to recycling experts, the problems with REDcycle are indicative of a larger problem: a lack in local manufacturing options for recycled materials.

Close the Loop said the company “reiterates the need for ongoing evolution in the local collection and recycling industry that uses multiple collection, recycling and reuse options as part of a diverse circular economy”.