converting waste toner powder into commercial flooring

Conversion of waste toner powder into commercial flooring

Angus Carnie the global powder recycling expert has now developed a new method of converting waste toner powder into commercial flooring suitable for numerous commercial applications including factories, shops, office reception areas, sports stadia, supermarkets and any area with a high footfall volume.

The flooring can be any colour and is extremely hard wearing and will work every time and importantly in every country throughout the World.  Carnie added I have now been working on this complex process for 3 years and perfecting the process whereby it worked for every type of waste type. Toner powder are manufactured in numerous types and it was important that each type was tested and fortunately I received samples from many different manufacturers which allowed me to test each type of powder individually. The other problem was I had to develop a solution that would work equally well for small producers of this waste type and extremely large producers. I am approached everyday by remanufacturers and recyclers that have under  1 tonne of waste powder but equally I have customers that produce 20 tonnes per day and a process had to be found that catered for both volumes .

I have seen lots of different systems tried in numerous Countries and they invariably did not work. For example adding to concrete and bricks was a common one but in fact it makes the concrete brittle. Adding heat or water is impossible in any type of process and burning the material is not an option as although it has an excellent calorific value but it is extremely volatile and has lead to major explosions at processing plants. Not to mention expensive to transport and invariably charged a processing fee.

Environmental Authorities throughout the World are becoming stricter in how this material is disposed of. Plus corporate buyers of printer cartridges are asking for complete and detailed audit trails and a zero land fill policy.  Therefore a workable solution had to be found and fortunately with this conversion process it has and hopefully this will mean an end to the dumping and land filling of this material.  

The main point also was for the producers is to gain an income from selling this powder as it is a by product of the remanufacturing process and with this process the powder can easily be sold with a high and constant demand.

The process is the intellectual property of Angus Carnie and more details can be found on his website www.powderrecycling.co.uk

waste toner powder

Waste toner powder recycling took a step forward yesterday when it was announced that a range of document shredding consoles will be partially manufactured from solidified waste toner powder. The consoles will be manufactured by Manchester based Business Plus who currently manufacture and supply office furniture.  The solidified toner will be purchased from remanufacturers throughout Europe. 

For further information visit www.securityconsole.co.uk    

waste toner powder

Who invented the process for recycling waste toner powder?

This waste  has been a difficult substance to recycle as it is an exceedingly complicated product and with many versions.  To understand the complexity of this material for recycling you need to understand how it is collected. The vast majority comes via the refilling process of empty original cartridges via refilling organisations also known as remanufacturers. The empty cartridges are never totally empty and before they can be refilled with new toner powder the cartridges must be thoroughly cleaned and all the residual toner powder removed. The toner powder is sucked from the components – rollers, cogs and so on by various types of dust extraction systems. Some of these can be very small units or substantial industrial plants.  The collection units/vacuum collects the waste toner powder into industrial drums.  These drums contain dozens of different types of materialr as all manufacturers use different variations of different toner powder. Each drum will also be different from the previous one.  All this makes recycling of waste toner powder very difficult.

To make recycling of used toner powder even more complicated it has a very low melting point due to the wax coating of the powder granules plus different waxes have different melt points. 

If that is not complicated enough the powder can be made of different materials with numerous additives such as ferrous oxide. Mixing metals and plastics and waxes as powders makes separation impossible by traditional methods.

A whole new approach was required but by recycling experts who understand what could be done and what could not. What also needed to be seriously considered was the powder is supplied globally so the waste is also global meaning the recycling solution therefore has to work in every country and in every weather condition.

Eventually a team of highly recycling experts lead by United Kingdom recycling expert Angus Carnie developed a range of recycling solutions dependent on the size of the waste toner problem. Solutions range from fingerprint powder to parts of the actual printers.

     Whilst much of Carnies’ work is protected by international intellectual property law and many non disclosure agreements the many photographs and industry articles on this innovative recycling process that abound on the internet are a testament in the many hours that obviously have been spent on this project and  to stop land filling and of course the 1,000 years it takes to break down this material if disposed of in this manner. So stop land filling this material and recycle instead and ask your tonercartridge supplier exactly what happens to your cartridges and if they do not know change suppliers.