Yea, don't think this is a good thing. Last year they had the $3 program in place for ANY brand cartridge. It worked too well so they scaled back to only 3 brands. I had managers of two stores tell me that they would just fill up on cartridges and then throw them in the garbage. So Staples did a great job of luring people in who wanted to recycle, and certainly didn't mind the coupon, only to throw them all in the land fill.

Let's get some accountability from them as to where the cartridges go at this point.

Or you could recycle them for money.. See this post, towards the bottom.

I've been recycling them for cash for years now..

I've dumpster-dived behind Staples regularly for some time now. Every time I see bags and bags of ink & toner cartridges. We filled up 5 bags one time & tried to trade them for the $3 discount, & they gave us a form asking to specify each cartridge.

Actually, at my local staples (oregon), they suddenly stopped giving the discount. Must have been that "scaled back" bit Willy mentions, but dag nabit, that's why I was buying from them to begin with.

cartridgeworld.com refills/recycles all cartidge brands. i've been using them for the last couple of months and love their service and their prices (about half the cost of new).

This is friggin awful! Skazz's experience shows that Staples should be totally called out. Treehugger, get vocal about this the way you did with the Kleenex thing. Actually, what Staples is doing is so downright evil, it makes the Kleenex thing seems innocent bu comparison:

lure eco-conscious customers in to buy more junk, simple to throw the cartridge in the dumpster. Friggin EVIL.

Staples is not a company to do business with. They have lied about their ink program from the start. Bring in your ink cartridges and get a $3.00 gift certificate off your next merchantdise purchase.... You could walk in and turn in twenty and as long as you paid a percent of the purchase in cash, you could use all your coupons. Then they dropped it down to three... so they don't stick to their committments. Some of the managers don't beleive in the coustomer and suport them and their public relations is awful.

I am a profesional dumster diver. The staples ink $3 rebate to save the world or what. Every ink cartdrige is usually thrown away, unless they have set up a deal with a refiller. Last year my partner and I recycled over 1500 emty's. We sold some on line threw ebay and then direct to refillers.
When the prices on some HP's were to low we would take then back inside to Staples.There were limits at first 3 a day & now up to 15 and sometimes you can use them all at once on one item. It all depends on the store manager. But it has to be HP. If you have more to turn in just take along the kids or hit other Staples stores.

Mostly I purchase my electronic equipments at lowest prices from Staples store at Couponalbum.com.....!

I am very interested in communicating with skazz or Gary about what they've seen dumpster-diving. Have they seen ink cartridges in the dumpster at Office Depot or Office Max, which have similar take-back programs?

Thank you.