The Refill Specialists operate under the banner of 'save money, save the planet', and whilst eco-considerations may induce you to use these services, I'm sure they weren't exactly the key motivating factors that inspired the owners to set up in business. That said, the reality that refilling cartridges does actually save a small amount of plastic from going into our over burdened landfill sites is a good thing! Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that the inks that printers use across the board are not exactly sourced from organic dyes!
The 'save you money' aspect of the deal is pretty crucial to the equation however. With peripheral manufacturers competing on the retail costs of hardware, it's entirely possible to buy really sophisticated equipment for a fraction of the cost it used to be. For example, I went out and bought an Epsom printer with an integral scanner, fax and photocopier for less than £50.00 recently. That's a price war for you! So, the only way that these guys can make the money back that they have lost in selling you equipment at loss making prices is to sell you the consumables at grossly inflated prices. I think that the Epsom cartridge for my printer is about £25.00, but of course, I know where I can buy a comparable product for less than £2.00, (I rang them before buying this model to see if they had the supporting media)...
The Refill Specialist also stock a range of office supplies, like paper and CD cases etc, as well as offering their refill service. read more