Waste Toner Recycled: Berto Paves the Way

Waste Toner Recycled: Berto Paves the Way

The toner and recycling industries have been looking for a way to reuse waste toner for decades. In 2015, TonerPave was developed by Close the Loop in partnership with one of Australia’s largest infrastructure companies, Downer Group, and is the result of a shared culture of innovation and a genuine desire to reduce the companies’ carbon footprint.

TonerPave is new asphalt with high-recycled content and reduced carbon footprint. The key ingredient is MTP (Modified Toner Polymer), which is the result of many years of development by Close the Loop and is a prime example of industrial ecology in action.

While recycled products are often viewed as being inferior, TonerPave claims to produce a superior asphalt that resists rutting and cracking at both high and low temperatures requires less maintenance, and has a 23% lower carbon footprint –  all at the same price as standard asphalt.

Downer is one of Australia’s largest and most progressive infrastructure companies, a top tier producer of asphalt, and a builder of roads. TonerPave is part of the company’s new range of asphalt products under its ‘Low Carbon Asphalt’ banner.

Lexmark “paved the way” in what is seen to be a commercial first in North America. The OEM constructed a large asphalt pavement, or car park at its corporate headquarters, located in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. It contains more than 4,082 kgs (9,000 pounds) of toner collected from used printer cartridges.

According to lanereport.com, the parking lot is the first commercial application in North America of a product called TonerPave, which uses the same toner powder used in Lexmark printers, to make asphalt—and possibly make it better.

Berto muses in this cartoon that just as toner needs to be baked onto paper using the heat tollers inside a printer, waste toner also needs to be “pressed into service” when used in asphalt.

John Gagel, Corporate Manager for Sustainability at Lexmark, said, “We have been trying to find an efficient way to reuse and recycle toner for well over 10 years. TonerPave is an efficient and effective manner in which to recycle toner. We’re now demonstrating that we have a solution that can be utilized in a sustainable manner. It’s part of the circular economy.”