HP Deskjet Ink Cartridges: Expensive and Overpackaged

Two ink cartridges shouldn't produce this much waste.

I don’t print things very often on my printer. I ran out of ink last year and finally bought new cartridges (black and colour) this year for my HP printer because I had to print some tax items. I was disgusted not just by the price for two cartridges (almost $90 Canadian), but also by the overpackaging of both ink cartridges (double the waste). Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a new printer than it is to buy replacement ink cartridges which leads to further waste.

A cardboard box each, a cardboard tray each, a paper insert, a plastic foil bag each, for two ink cartridges. So much waste.

Surely there’s a way to produce less packaging for ink cartridges (and ink cartridges themselves are not easily recycled due to their mixed components, so it produces a lot of waste each time an ink cartridge is bought both at the time and down the road). Recycling is better than just garbage, but reducing is better than recycling. HP ink cartridges are certainly overpackaged.