Brooklyn's Progress
June/July 2007

BY JILL SHEEHY

Combining the desire to be eco-friendly and the dream of owning a business was a good idea to Geoffrey Wood, owner of the Atlantic Avenue Cartridge World shop.
Mr. Wood’s franchise refills used printer ink cartridges, saving you – and the environment – the trouble of tossing them. If it sounds like a simple idea, that’s because it is, Mr. Wood reasoned.

“Your cartridges are empty, not broken,” he said. “There is no reason for them to end up in the trash.”

Mr. Wood, who opened his doors back in February, had some frightening statistics on hand.

“It takes two-and-a-half gallons of oil to make a laser cartridge,” he said.

Perhaps the most convincing argument comes from the facts about printer ink cartridges. According to the company, they account for more than 90 percent of the throwaway cartridges deposited in landfills and can take up to 450 years to decompose. In North America alone, over 350 million cartridges per year are discarded in our landfills, and that number is increasing by 12 percent annually.

“We benefit the community by promoting recycling and waste reduction through refilling laser and inkjet printer cartridges, and in the process, providing considerable cost savings to both consumers and businesses”, said Mr. Wood.

It can be up to 50% cheaper to go with a Cartridge World refill over buying a new one, and the store offers a satisfaction guarantee or your money back.

To make ink that will work with your old ink cartridges, their laboratories reverse engineer each cartridge as it comes on the market. Incidentally, they are almost too good at getting the ink down pat, having been sued by HP because their formula was too close to the original. They have since made slight changes to protect HP’s intellectual property.

Mr. Wood has ensured that his store’s efforts are genuine by using wind power for all its electrical needs through ConEd’s Solutions green energy program.

Mr. Wood plans to take advantage of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s many events and is looking forward to the Five-Borough Chamber Networking event at the New York Aquarium.

For more information about Cartridge World, you can log on to www.cartridgeworldusa.com/store550 or call 718-554-1203.