University of Wisconsin Saves $482,000 Using Remanufactured Toner Cartridges

The University of Wisconsin’s Purchasing Services at Madison has organized facilities personnel from campus to review and select a standard set of commonly used products and is switching to remanufactured toner cartridges instead of new OEM products.

As was reported by UW-Madison, empty cartridges are recovered, cleaned, refilled, tested and resold, a more sustainable practice than throwing out single-use cartridges. In addition, EIS Office Solutions, one of the leading office supply retailers, has been selected as the campus’s vendor for remanufactured toner cartridges.

UW-Madison noted it spent $703,000 on 6,000 new OEM toner cartridges in the last 7 month period. By comparison, the campus has spent only $221,000 on the remanufactured products from EIS Office Solutions, thereby saving $482,000 in the same period.

Apart from the environmental impact, the campus said that standardization also helps to reduce cost remarkably. By limiting the number of vendors and products, the university has achieved improved pricing, streamlined ordering, shipping and storage. These changes will save almost $35,000 per year on paper towels and more than $54,000 for toilet paper.

Martha Kerner, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Business Services, commented, “We’re being very thoughtful about building for the future of the university. When we can be good stewards of our financial resources and have a positive environmental impact at the same time, we know we’re headed in the right direction,” adding “We’re very proud of this work.”

Darrell Bazzell, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, observed, “These are exactly the types of things we need to pay attention to on this campus. The time and money saved by these simple measures will go a long way towards our educational and outreach priorities without compromising our commitment to high quality.”