Having said that it’s not a bad little printer, individual inks, memory card slot and reasonable print quality.  The quality of the build is reasonable, although I did find it very loud especially when loading pages it makes a right racket.   Of course for the price you’d expect a few niggles when it comes down to it.

Epson Stylus SX215

The running costs are reduced slightly because it has single color cartridges which means you can just replace a single unit at a time.  Thankfully most printer manufacturers do this nowadays.

If you can live with these niggles though it’s a reasonable quality, cheap multifunction printer.  But I do want to stop you here to consider, if you a fair amount of printing you must consider the running costs of this machine.

The costs equate to just over 10p a page for color A4 printing if you include paper and about 3-4 pence a page for black and white printing.   This would alter if you used cheaper compatible toners for instance.

This is not a cheap printer to run when you consider some laser printers can print A4 color sheets for about 2 pence a page, even many of the slightly more expensive inkjet printers like some of the HP and Canon machines can print at 5 or 6 pence per page.   If you’re doing quite a bit of printing the low cost of the printer can soon be eroded if you’re paying an extra pound for every 20 sheets printed for instance.

If you just print the odd page from the internet and a few photos, it’s fine but saving a few pounds on the cost of the hardware can be a false economy if you use your printer a lot in color.  As always with printers – make sure it’s the right hardware for your needs – the Epson Stylus SX215 can be a bargain for some but a very bad buy for others !

It reminded me of the Only fools and Horses show some time ago, when they created their own water called “Peckham Spring Water” which they actually filled from a tap in their flat.

They sold thousands to health food shops and supermarkets at a huge profit.

Of course this parody is rather close to the truth, could you tell the difference. I suspect I could not and even if I could is it really worth the huge waste of resources to transport water from Fiji all the way to the UK.  The environmental cost must be enormous for a at best negligible benefit.

So if you live in country where the tap water is fine, why not give up buying bottled water.  Save those big plastic bottles, fill them up from the tap and put them in the fridge.   Fill up all your smaller bottles and take them to work, then refill at the end of the day.

If you don’t think it would make a difference – think on this, 32,200 tonnes of CO2 is produced in the UK every year simply by transporting this bottled water.  That’s not including the manufacturing of the bottles, extraction and advertising etc.  Talking of bottles, these also have to be dealt with – in  the UK again 50% of our plastic bottles go to be recycled in places like China.    All this pointless manufacturing, transportation for a product we have in abundance in our very homes.

So please think about wiping bottled water from your lives,  you just have to be a little organised and you can have cold bottled tap water from your fridge.  You’ll save a fortune and reduce a huge and utterly pointless environmental cost.

Don’t be misled, there is no real reason that toner cartridges shouldn’t be refilled many times BEFORE they are recycled. This would cut waste dramatically, even if the cartridges were reused once there would be a huge saving in environmental costs. Multiplied across the world the world the benefits would be enormous. There is one main reason that the average toner cartridge is not refilled however, that is because the printer companies don’t want you to.

None of the components in a laser toner cartridge are so badly manufactured that they only last one print run, when the ink runs outs a printer cartridge would work perfectly well if it was refilled. In fact this is what used to happen especially with photocopiers in the passed, all the cartridges had little stoppers on them which you could pour toner ink to refill them. However the companies noticed if they took these stoppers out people had to buy new cartridges and their profits soared. Slowly over a year or two these all went, and the little stoppers seemed like a thing of the past.

But then many companies noticed that it was relatively easy to make you own hole and seal with a generic stopper by yourself and they started to sell kits. These kits allowed you to keep using the printer cartridge by refilling it with ink. It is something I do today, it takes a few minutes and involves no skill whatsoever (luckily for me). It is a great feeling to know that you can reuse these toner cartridges over and over again. Without the cost and expense of rebuilding, recycling or worse them ending up in landfill.

Why Printer Firms want Printer Cartridge Recycling

So how did our Green crusading printer companies react to this development, well it’s simple they put computer chips in their toner cartridges to stop you refilling them. They want you to use that cartridge once, and once only – by encouraging you to recycle that cartridge they maintain a ‘green persona’ whilst maximising their profits. Every time you refill a toner cartridge you are reducing their profits, the computer chips ensure that the toner cartridge won’t work until that too is reset. That computer chips sole purpose is to prevent you reusing and recycling yourself – by far the greenest option is actively prevented by the printing companies.

Sure you’ll hear horror stories about print quality, damage to your printer etc and even voiding of warranty. But let me reassure you about those, if you use quality toner the results will be no different to a new cartridge. There’s no risk of damage to your printer – you’re just refilling ink and even if there was in many instances the costs savings are so high you could buy a new printer after every other refill !

Fear not the companies who provide the refilling kits can in most cases. provide a replacement computer chip which will prevent the companies greedy practice of disabling them – it is annoying as it is another step but is pretty simple. So next time you look at the fancy green glossy recycling bag supplied to you with your expensive toner cartridge – remember at the heart of it is no environmental idealism, there is just the cynical maintaining of profits and their bottom line.

Give it a try, for the vast majority of printers you can add another stage before the printer cartridge recycling one. Refill the cartridges can save you hundreds believe me and it requires no special skill. There’s many firms around – the one I use is called Tonertopup but there are lots of others. Make sure they use quality compatible toner for each toner cartridge and you should save 80% of your running costs and do the world a favor.

But what exactly is recycled paper and why is it better?

Recycled paper falls into three categories. The first category is mill broke. This type of recycled paper is from scraps that are left over when making new paper products. These are recycled internally directly at the mill they are processed from and used to make more paper. Pre-consumer recycling is when paper is recycled prior to consumer use. Most of us are aware of post-consumer recycling. This is when a consumer recycles products such as magazines, newspapers, junk mail, and other paper products.
Although trees are a renewable resource they take a long time to grow. While manufactures have been able to produce sustainable tree farms that are producing more material and grow faster, it still takes a long time for a tree to mature.

Theoretically we could exhaust the supply before new trees are ready to be harvested. Recycling on the other hand saves our natural resources. It is estimated that recycling newspaper alone saves 1 ton of wood, and recycling printing and copy paper saves 2 tons of wood.

Not only that, but recycling paper also saves energy. About 40% more energy is saved to create recycled paper than to manufacture new paper. That’s enough energy to run heating and cooling for a traditional home in the United States for six months. That’s a lot of energy.

Recycling is a way to eliminate paper waste from ending up in our landfills. While paper is biodegradable, it still takes a long time to decompose. By reducing the amount of paper waste that ends up in landfills we can improve the environment. When paper decomposes it releases harmful green house gases. We can reduce or even eliminate these gases by recycling paper. For every 1 ton of paper that is recycled, 3 cubic feet of landfill is available for something else. That’s a lot of space.

Printing on recycled paper with eco friendly ink is also a way to eliminate waste and protect the environment. Most synthetic or traditional inks are not natural and require pigmentation and chemicals to produce vibrant rich colors. Natural inks get the same results with less pigmentation needed and no toxic substances.

By using recycled paper in our printing processes we can save the environment in a variety of ways. Printing on recycled paper provides the same professional and rich appearance as new paper with a lot less side effects. Not only that, but recycled paper does not have as many chemical components as new paper, and is therefore healthier for the individual as well. With so many positives, the choice is simple. Whenever possible use recycled paper printing materials.

Green Printing Services

Green printing Services

Consolidated Printing Company is an eco friendly service that uses natural vegetable based inks. Most green printers use soy based inks, but vegetable inks contain no petroleum thus reducing VOC’s. They boast a safe work environment by using products such as vinegar, used restaurant oil, and vinegar instead of silver or other chemicals. They lowered their energy use by 20% with new energy efficient equipment and lighting and completely eliminated waste water from the printing process. To top it off they use recycled paper, toner and ink cartridges and participate in recycling programs for their used cartridges and waste paper. Even their offices have been renovated to eliminate toxic substances. This company is a great model for how to truly run an environmentally friendly business.

Bacchus Press located in Emeryville, California is another green printing service. They use only vegetable or soy based inks and 100% recycled paper. They work hard to reduce pollution, waste, and the carbon footprint of their company and all projects that they are working on. Recognized and rewarded by a variety of organizations, they are compliant with government regulations and standards. They also invest in energy saving technology like wind and solar power. Their office is also eco friendly and healthier for employees. They use natural cleaning products in and around the office, low flow plumbing facets, and energy saving lighting. What’s really impressive is that the refer long distance projects to vendors located near the requesting vendor, thus reducing fuel cost.

Located in Brooklyn, New York, Rolling Press strives to produce eco friendly printer that is also budget friendly. Rolling Press is really a high tech highly committed printing company. They have revolutionized eco friendly printing and work hard to make others in the industry aware of these advances. They eliminate the use of film and other chemicals when creating printing plates, avoiding harsh toxins and chemical waste from the plate process. They have also switched to wind power which saves about 50 tons of CO2 from being emitted into our atmosphere. They also pride themselves in a healthy work environment. Their décor is innovative and appealing as the walls are lined with egg trays. Unusually as it may seem, these repurposed containers lower noise pollution and act as extra insulation during cold winter months and hot summer days. These egg trays lower noise levels for employees and neighbors and lower energy consumption. If you are looking for a high quality industry leader, then Rolling Press is the right choice.

There are numerous other green printing services available, one of the simplest available to us all is to simply refill our catridges with compatible toner. As new technology emerges they are becoming more affordable, healthier, and accessible. Saving the planet takes a commitment and these companies have committed time and resources to make a better future for all of us.