Christmas Morning with HP

I bit the bullet the other day and bought replacement ink cartridges for my HP Officejet printer. I've tried those ink refilling places but (maybe it's me) the ink never seems to last that long - and the cartridge electronics don't work when they're re-filled, so when you're out of ink, you're OUT of ink.

After taking out a small loan, I made my purchase of both a black cartridge and a combo color cartridge.

If you haven't purchased printer ink recently, be warned: Each cartridge costs about the same as a tank of gas.

Built into the price of the replacement cartridges is HP's cartridge recycling program. I was pleased to find within the cartridge packaging, a self addressed, postage paid envelope, with which you could return the used cartridge to HP. I don't know what HP does with them when they get them, but at least they leave their customers with the impression, they don't end up in a landfill somewhere.

The "green" message is somewhat muted however, by all the excessive packaging that surrounds the cartridges. First, the external packaging is at least twice as large as it has to be - suggesting to the consumer that the package may contain two cartridges (and at that price, who wouldn't expect two?)

Nope. It's just air.

Perhaps the Marketing department wanted better shelf visibility. Perhaps the size of the packaging is designed to intentionally mislead. Either way, using extra cardboard is hardly eco-friendly.

Also contained within the packaging is a separate piece of paper with instructions on how to replace the cartridge (at least I thought that's what it was - I just tossed it.) Why not print the instructions on the inside of the package itself?

Finally, the cartridge came sealed in an airtight aluminum foil wrapper - to preserve the freshness of the ink.

By the time I had my hands on the cartridge, the table was filled with garbage. It looked like Christmas morning at our house. Wrapping everywhere.

I commend HP for their recycling efforts, but if HP is really serious about being a good environmental citizen, I'd suggest they revisit their packaging.