Quality Print Services Ltd (QPS) is reminding UK wide-format print businesses signing up to Nazdar's free ink campaign that they will be eligible for the QPS cartridge recycling scheme when they become regular customers.

Nazdar is so confident that its top-quality alternative inks will win over current OEM ink users that it is offering free ink cartridges to the UK industry, following a hugely successful scheme in the USA.

QPS, supplier of Nazdar inks, launched its end-to-end cartridge recycling programme in 2011 in an effort to minimise its role in the generation of landfill waste from the signage and graphics industry and its resultant environmental problems.

Working with Nazdar, QPS identified the specific cartridge structure to improve recyclability and began collections of used cartridges from customers.

Remaining ink is extracted and taken to a local solvent recovery centre, located just down the road from QPS's headquarters in Burscough, Lancashire to reduce road miles. The separated cartridge components are then sent to a reprocessing plant – a local business in North Lancashire – where they are ground down and reprocessed to produce clean chips for resale back into the UK plastics manufacturing industry.

QPS customers who take advantage of the recycling programme will receive certification of their involvement, which can be used to support an ISO 14001 application.

"Our industry creates a huge amount of waste on a weekly basis that ends up in landfill. We wanted to help reduce that by ensuring the Nazdar ink cartridges we sell are diverted to recycling centres – at no cost to the customer," explains QPS Director Chris Bailey.

"Once the customer has a number of cartons of empty cartridges packed up, we'll collect them next time we're on a delivery run or doing service visits in the area."

Chris Bailey adds: "The scheme means regular users of Nazdar ink from QPS don't have to worry about hazardous materials disposal, find space for waste material as it builds up, or worry about their environmental impact. Instead they can know their empties are being turned into a whole range of recycled plastic products."

Customers of Nazdar inks developed specifically for Mimaki, Mutoh and Roland wide-format printers are eligible for the programme.

In addition to a variety of alternative inks and the recycling scheme, QPS customers have access to an expert printer service and engineering team, on hand to help businesses convert from OEM inks and with any technical and breakdown support required. QPS also offers a selection of top-brand-name wide-format printers, both new and reconditioned, Neolt laminators and printers, and RIP software.

QPS is also a supplier of Biomedia, a recyclable and biodegradable film, laminate and board range that can further boost a print house's environmental reputation, and Nazdar's Hydrocolor environmentally friendly ink technology.