ETIRA supports two consumer associations criticising HP

December 21, 2023

Recently, the European Toner and Inkjet Remanufacturers Association (ETIRA) has publicly announced its support for two leading consumer associations in their criticism of HP’s pricing strategies and the use of Dynamic Security in its products. This announcement is a response to recent developments highlighting HP’s practices that negatively impact consumers and sustainability efforts.

HP’s economic challenges have led to a strategic shift in its approach to Dynamic Security, a technology used to authenticate cartridges. This shift, aimed at expanding the scope of Dynamic Security, is set to lock out more aftermarket consumables. Many printers will only work when connected to the internet, and they lock out non-new HP cartridges. As a result, consumers are forced to rely on HP’s more expensive ink and toner cartridges. This move increases costs for consumers and poses a significant setback for sustainability efforts.

Recent reports in the Dutch consumer magazine Consumentengids and a study by the UK’s Which? have brought to light the significant price increases in HP ink cartridges, with some soaring by as much as 58% since 2011. These increases notably outstrip the inflation rate for the same period. Additionally, original printer ink remains prohibitively expensive, costing more per millilitre than luxury items like Dom Perignon Champagne and The Macallan Whisky.

ETIRA stands with the consumer associations in calling out these practices. The association emphasizes that limiting the use of refilled cartridges burdens consumers financially and undermines efforts to promote environmental sustainability. In an era where consumer rights and eco-friendliness are increasingly prioritized, HP’s tightening of Dynamic Security features appears misaligned with these values.

ETIRA urges HP to reconsider its strategy, focusing instead on policies that support consumer choice and sustainable practices, like cartridge reuse. The association believes that such a change is not only in the best interest of consumers but is also crucial for the long-term reputation and trust of the HP brand.

ETIRA remains committed to advocating for fair, competitive practices in the toner and inkjet market, ensuring that the rights of consumers and the importance of sustainability are upheld.

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ETIRA comment on HP’s Ambitious Climate Action Goals

April 22, 2021

HP outlines broad plans to combat climate change focused on Carbon Emissions, Circularity and Forests   

Introduces partnerships to extend impact ranging from ocean conservation to forest restoration

Goals

  • Achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across HP value chain by 2040, beginning with supplies business achieving carbon neutrality by 2030
  • Reduce HP value chain GHG emissions 50% by 2030.
  • Reach carbon neutrality and zero waste in HP operations by 2025.
  • Reach 75% circularity for products and packaging by 2030
  • Maintain zero deforestation for HP paper and paper-based packaging
  • Counteract deforestation for non-HP paper used in our products and print services by 2030

Partnerships

  • Expands HP Sustainable Forests Collaborative
  • Sponsors Forest Stewardship Council’s Digital Marketplace
  • Joins Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Alliance® Steering Committee

Today, in advance of Earth Day, HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) announced some of the most aggressive and comprehensive climate goals in the technology industry. The commitments highlight the progress the company is making to drive a net zero carbon, fully regenerative economy, reduce its overall environmental footprint, and strengthen its business for the long term to create the most sustainable portfolio of products and solutions in the industry.

“Combating the climate crisis is an unprecedented challenge demanding action across the private and public sectors. We all have a shared stake in safeguarding our planet, and making a sustainable impact on the communities we serve must be a priority for all companies,” said Enrique Lores, HP Inc. President and CEO. “At HP, we are united in our ambition to become the world’s most sustainable and just technology company. These new goals reflect our continued efforts to drive toward net-zero carbon emissions – not just within our own operations, but across our entire value chain. It’s not only the right thing to do, but also an increasingly important driver of innovation and growth that will strengthen our business well into the future.”

The Case for Business Transformation

The measures HP is pursuing, including the targets announced today, are among the most comprehensive climate actions in the technology sector and align with relevant U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. In order to achieve these goals, HP is focused on accelerating five strategic drivers intended to decouple growth from carbon emissions and resource consumption, drive innovation, and transform design and business models:

  • Print and Compute-as-a-Service: Print supplies renewal, hardware-as-a-service, certified pre-owned, hardware
  • Sustainable materials: Increase use of renewable and recycled materials
  • Supply chain decarbonization: Drive and support supplier carbon reduction, use of renewable electricity, and adoption of surface transportation and alternative fuels and electric vehicles for product shipments
  • Energy efficiency: Design in existing and new energy-efficient product technologies
  • Forest investments: Address the fiber used in printing and packaging by investing in forest restoration and protection, and continue to source certified or recycled materials

Carbon emissions and circularity
To achieve these targets, HP will be carbon neutral in its operations by 2025 and reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% on an absolute basis by 2030, compared to 2019.[vi] Additionally, 75% HP’s total annual product and packaging content, by weight, will come from recycled, renewable and/or reused materials, products and parts by 2030. HP commits to 75% of its total annual product and packaging content (by weight) to come from recycled and renewable materials and reused products and parts by 2030. These actions will help to position HP to reach net zero emissions across its value chain by 2040. In line with HP’s circularity ambitions, HP Operations will be zero waste in its managed facilities by 2025.[vii]  HP’s Customer Support organization will also be carbon neutral across both HP and partner-run operations by 2030.

HP will pursue and accelerate a range of steps, including enabling a circular economy by using more sustainable materials, such as recycled plastics and metals, and investing in forest restoration and protection.[viii] Since 1991, HP has kept more than 875 million HP cartridges, 114 million apparel hangers, and 4.69 billion postconsumer plastic bottles out of landfills—instead, upcycling them to make new HP products. After introducing the world’s most sustainable PC portfolio, HP continues to innovate throughout its product portfolio and work with key partners to achieve circularity. HP is a member of NextWave Plastics, collaborating across industries to create the first global network of ocean-bound plastic supply chains. HP is also a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Network and the Circulytics measurement tool.

HP was the first global IT company to publish its full carbon footprint and set carbon emissions reduction goals for its operations, supply chain, products and solutions. HP was among the first 10% of companies with GHG emissions reduction goals approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, including a 1.5°C aligned goal to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions 60% by 2025 compared to 2015. For two consecutive years, HP is the only technology company to have been named to CDP’s A lists for climate, forests, and water, as well as CDP’s supplier engagement leaderboard. HP has been a member of RE 100 since 2016 and EV 100 since 2017.

Reducing Carbon in HP Supplies

HP will transform its print business from a transactional model to a services model, while actively reducing the carbon footprint of its company and its products. To accelerate a transition to a net zero value chain, HP commits to carbon neutrality for its supplies business by 2030.

HP will start transitioning supplies to be carbon neutral by launching HP Instant Ink with Planet Partners pilot, leveraging recycling and new renewal capabilities to extend the life of Original HP Supplies. This pilot will help customers decrease virgin plastic used, and diminish waste, including ocean-bound plastics, on the pathway to circularity. Launching in Germany in May 2021, HP Instant Ink with Planet Partners will allow HP Instant Ink subscribers to opt-in to receive renewed cartridges. The end-to-end use of HP technology and engineering is what makes this pilot unique. The consistent reliability and outstanding print quality of Original HP Supplies mean fewer reprints and less waste.

ETIRA commented “The Voluntary Agreement’s environmental performance since 2011 has been extremely weak, and it did not facilitate cartridge reuse.  If it wants to play a serious role in reducing the environmental footprint of the printing industry, it must include strong eco-design regulation, clear reuse targets for OEMs such as HP, and decisive action against polluting single-use clone cartridges.”

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HP firmware update: ETIRA urges HP to change course and take ‘path of sustainability’

July 29, 2020

The European Toner and Inkjet Remanufacturers Association (ETIRA) is urging HP to rethink its latest printer firmware update.

The update, version 2025A/2021B – released in July 2020 – affects HP OfficeJet 5220, 5255, 5230, 5232, HP ENVY 5020, 5032 and HP DeskJet 2621 devices.

In the past, similar updates have blocked out reused HP cartridges across the globe, causing significant financial damage to end-users, resulting in many claims against HP. ETIRA is hoping to avoid a similar situation again.

Javier Martinez, president of ETIRA, said: “It is quite clear that HP printer owners using reuse cartridges who update the firmware, may find that their cartridges no longer work, and this is down to HP. Its printers use something called ‘dynamic security’, which recognises cartridges that aren’t HP branded and stops them from working and this is unacceptable for a variety of important reasons.

“Firstly, the result of the overnight change is that reuse/remanufactured HP cartridges no longer function in the printer in which they are installed, and they may render remanufactured stock cartridges useless. End-users can no longer print, and this is especially painful in the current COVID-19 environment, where many are forced to use home printers to do their job.

ETIRA President, Javier Martinez

“Secondly, the resulting higher volume of non-working but full cartridges exponentially increases waste treatment risks, as treatment plants are designed to process empty cartridges, not full ones.

“And finally, but most important: this approach has an unnecessary and negative environmental impact as good products are wasted prematurely and unnecessarily. Reuse of a cartridge several times, followed by recycling its base materials is by far the preferred option as it reduces CO2 emissions by up to 45%-60%, and saves energy and natural resources.

“Our members will hold HP responsible and liable for all damages occurring from this update and under the new EU Circular Economy Action plan mandate and existing waste regulations, HP may find that its actions are considered an environmental offence.”

ETIRA has mentioned this issue to HP on numerous occasions but so far to no satisfactory conclusion. The association has now again written to the firm, raising its concerns.

Javier Martinez added: “HP’s printer cartridges business model is the opposite of sustainability, forcing end-users to buy a new cartridge each time instead of reusing it several times. It also renders reuse cartridges useless without cause and goes against the new EU policy to become carbon-neutral and promote reuse EU-wide.

“On behalf of our members and all those across Europe who use reusable cartridges, we urge HP to abandon this strategy of creating pollution  and take the path of sustainability instead which will allow consumers and third parties to easily reuse HP cartridges without being hindered by unnecessary firmware updates that block out remanufactured HP cartridges.”

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ETIRA responds to recent HP flyer on cartridges

March 25, 2019

General marketing speak is OK, but you cannot say things that are not true. ETIRA regrets that HP’s new product marketing material is again lowering the bar. Their September 2017 flyer on printer cartridges may be generally correct on clones and counterfeits, but speaks nonsense on remanufactured cartridges: it is a baseless generalization, which gets it wrong on all three counts: quality, safety and environment.

On quality, because since the 1990’s, 3rd party cartridge remanufacturers have held a 20-30% market share in toners and 15-20% in inkjets and is now a 2bn euro industry in Europe. So remanufacturers must be doing something right in terms of quality. And like the OEM’s, remanufacturers comply with the ISO cartridge yield standards.

On safety and quality, because most remanufacturers produce according to DIN, Nordic Ecolabel, STMC, ISO 9003, and other international safety and quality standards.

On environment, because we adhere to ISO 14001, Blue Angel, Nordic Ecolabel and similar standards. Most environment standard are only available to reuse cartridges, because by definition, they are more environment-friendly than new cartridges !  And it is only thanks to 3rd party remanufacturers that 20-30% of cartridges are not being landfilled after 1st use, but get a 2nd and subsequent life, reducing their environmental footprint while offering customer choice.  No printer manufacturer matches that environmental performance.

ETIRA thinks the flyer contradicts earlier HP viewpoints. In 2015, HP sued a company in the Netherlands because it sold new non-HP cartridges but labeled them as “totally rebuilt”. But as HP does not offer remanufactured HP cartridges, ETIRA saw this court case as support to the remanufactured cartridge industry. Why else would they spend the time and cost of a court case ?

ETIRA reached out to HP management to stress that the flyer is misleading and constitutes false advertising, and must be reworded.

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