Tree Planting by Recycling Printer Cartridges for Charity
🤝 Our Charity Partnership
For every full & unused cartridge donated that we repurpose — even better than just recycling — we plant 2 trees! 🌲🌲
We're official partners with charity Trees for the Future — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in Maryland, US that plants trees across 9 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve the environment & local communities.
So your old ink & toner cartridges can now have a second life & make a huge impact on charity & our environment.
🌲 Trees For The Future's Work
Since they were founded in 1989 they have planted over 344 million trees across 30 countries in Asia, Africa & Latin America.
In 2025 their work is centered on Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal & Mali.
Their 'forest garden' approach improves soil health, increases biodiversity, and provides economic benefits for local people to promote sustainability in these rural communities.
Their 2023 Impact Report is a great way to understand their approach and what their work has achieved.
📈 Our Charity Contributions
Since 2015, we've been able to repurpose over 33,000 cartridges & plant:
🌳 over 150,000 trees!
These trees have captured an estimated:
🌎 25,000 tons of CO2
Current tree-planting in 2025 is in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal & Mali — our funds are given freely to Trees For The Future for them to allocate across their campaigns.
🌲 Why Plant Trees?
Planting 1 tree captures, over its lifetime, an estimated 400lbs, so for every full cartridge donated:
1 cartridge = 2 trees 🌲🌲
2 trees 🌲🌲 = 800lbs of CO2
800lbs of CO2 is equivalent to a return flight from Washington DC to Charlotte, NC.
This makes our program a great way to fully offset the carbon emissions of your printing activities!
And aside from the trees, when you recycle your printer cartridges for this charity, you also massively reduce (up to 100%) the resources used in making a new cartridge.
Read our comparison of different cartridge disposal options to see why it's so important.
📈 total progress so far: 2015 → 2025
🖨️
33,816
cartridges
repurposed by our 1,000s of supporters instead of recycled
🌲
150,873
trees
planted with our charity partner Trees For The Future
🌎
27,157
tons of CO2
captured by these trees based on 180kg CO2 sequestered over a tree's lifetime
