With so many claims these days that items and services are eco friendly or environmentally conscious, it can be hard to know if it is just hype or the real thing. Using the work “green” has become the in thing and a buzz word for marketing to lure environment healthy people into buying. It is important to understand if an item really is “green” or the eco safe aspects are just claims. This is definitely the case with printer cartridges and toner.

An interesting claim on some manufacturers is that the printer only needs toner cartridges to be changed. Though what is the difference between a toner cartridge and a just a print cartridge? Another point overlooked in this only needing a toner cartridge is that they forget to mention the belts, drums, fusers, and other pieces that fall apart and need to be replaced. When it comes down to it a toner cartridge is just a printer cartridge.

A toner cartridge will consist of up to three multiple replaceable pieces. It might be true statement that the laser printer needs to replace includes only toner, but normally there will also be a developer. This developer is a magnetic roller which transfers toner to the Organic Photo Conductor (OPC) drum. In some laser printers, the cartridge can also include the OPC itself.

This makes any claim of the type "… you need only to replace the toner cartridge and no more parts ", seems to infer that you don’t need to replace the drum, maintenance, fuser, cleaning or transfer kits. It also infers that there is only one toner cartridge - but we no that is reality. Definitely in the situation of a single pass color laser printer, there are actually FOUR cartridges (CMYK). Users of some printers will replace four drums every time they replace four cartridges, whether they are aware of it or not. On the other hand,

It has often been demonstrated that printers with a 2 piece supplies arrangement lend to be less costly to use than those with an integrated drum. A configuration which separates out the two is more eco-friendly because the drum part needs to be changed less often, therefore creating less waste.

Thus, when searching at buying points for lower cost laser printers, buyers should be leery of the full significance of replacing "only" the Printer Cartridge. This selling item has a vast array of meanings for the eco-friendly, which require close investigation to ensure a more knowledgeable understanding of the true environmental impact of such an item.