Can I return refilled cartridges for recycling?

[aab1]

I refill my cartridges by making a hole in each the new and waste toner compartments, I dump the waste toner in the trash and seal the hole with electrical tape, then refill the main compartment with new toner and seal the hole with electrical tape. I then replace the smart chip to make the printer think it's a new cartridge. If you think that's a lot of work, it costs me $40 instead of $700 to refill VS buying new ones, and takes about 5 minutes per cartridge.

So far my cartridge with the most refills is on it's 2nd refill and working like new. I've heard of people saying I can get from 3-10 or more refills before quality degrades (anyone know?).

My question is, once a cartridge no longer gives good quality, can I return my refilled cartridges to my office supply store for recycling or do they need to be unmodified? What do they do with the cartridges you return for recycling? Do they re manufacture them (in which case having holes in it would prevent proper re manufacturing), or do they take them apart and melt the plastic and metal (in which case my electrical tape may cause a problem)?

So what am I best to do with the refilled cartridges?

Can I refill them without melting holes? I know I can empty the waste toner by taking it apart but so far haven't found a way to get toner into the main compartment even with the cartridge almost completely apart.

[OMD-227]

The cartridges go back to recycling and get shredded after removal & separation of plastics, metals & any toner residue left over.

I've actually been to a place which does this, and I can tell you that it doesnt matter what condition the cartridge is in, as it doesn't even get looked at..... just stripped and shredded/melted down.
Dont worry about the tape either. Everything gets recycled.

[aab1]

So where do re manufacturers get their cartridges from? I buy remanufactured cartridges at $153 a set instead of $700 for originals. The remanufactured ones are original HPs (I put HP cartridges in my Canon, they cost a lot less and the only difference is an HP sticker instead of a Canon sticker) that have had every part replaced other than the plastic case. So they are getting used original HP cartridges from somewhere.

[OMD-227]

The place I mentioned does cartridge complete recycling, which is a melted down product, stripped of all valuable materials, which is then on-sold to metal & plastic recyclers.

Places that perform refills get their cartridges from users who usually drop them off to that company. Completely different situation. One way of recycling is complete destruction & remanufacture, the other is rebuilding certain components & refilling as new.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

Most cartridges come with some kind of sticker or return label to put on the box so it doesn't cost anything to return the cartridges. I'm guessing it's like that anywhere in the world but not sure.