When a laser printer runs out of toner, you are left with big, bulky print cartridges that need to be disposed of. Not to mention other replaceables such as fusers and imaging units.

 

Solid ink printers use compact solid ink sticks with no cartridges. So when you run out of ink, there’s nothing left to throw away. And because the ink sticks are so small, there’s also less packaging to recycle. The only other replaceable unit is a maintenance roller. This lasts for tens of thousands of pages, so it only needs to be replaced a few times in the life of the printer.