West Point Products is
releasing the AgriTone premium replacement toner cartridges.They are a
series of remanufactured laser toner cartridges containing toner that
is 35 percent or more biobased.In 2008 alone, the company collected
more than 900,000 cartridges through its Empty Core Collection Program
and recycled more that 1 million pounds of raw materials from its
manufacturing process

The AgriTone product will be available for the following printers:

    * HP LaserJet 4200 series
    * HP LaserJet 4300 series
    * HP LaserJet 4345mfp
    * HP LaserJet 4250/4350 series

In
the future, other releases will include popular small work group
printers by other manufacturers.Soy based toner increases the ease in
which paper is recycled compared to petroleum-based toners, resulting
in cleaner and brighter pulp for future use in a variety of second-hand
products.It also increases energy independence by alleviating the need
for petroleum based toner.The economic demand for agricultural products
is also increased.According to Battelle, the 2007 worldwide toner
market was $17 billion.Using this figure, if the entire market were to
utilize soy-based toner, 302.4 million pounds of soybean oil would be
needed.

This equates to 26.8 million bushels of soybeans and
increased potential for the commodity crop.“We are very gratified that
our soy-based toner technology is being commercialized by our licensee,
Advanced Image Resources, and their supply chain partners,” said Rick
Heggs, Battelle senior market manager.“This technology represents a
significant leap forward in providing the printer and copier industry
with a high performance bioderived toner with excellent image
quality.““This commercial introduction reinforces our belief that our
alliance with the Ohio Soybean Council is critical to our efforts to
bring new soy-based industrial products to market to benefit the Ohio
agricultural economy in general and the Ohio soybean farmer
specifically.”