Print edition: 
Cartridge King of Kansas' customers come in at least three varieties, said Colin McKenney, head of the nonprofit company that remanufactures printer cartridges.
There are people who want to save money, people who want to protect the environment and people who want to help the employees of Cartridge King.
"It's a nice mixture of all three of those," McKenney said. "That's one thing that's helped us become successful."
Cartridge King was started in 1994 as a subsidiary of the Multi-Community Diversified Services agency based in McPherson. The idea was to train people with developmental disabilities to make a living. Cartridge King's mission was later expanded to helping people with physical disabilities. Currently, 33 people work there.
The company's main production facility is in McPherson, with smaller locations in Wichita and Topeka. All three locations offer over-the-counter sales.
To remanufacture cartridges, employees take them apart, clean and if necessary replace all the components inside — there are 35 to 50 screws, springs and other parts in each one — before reassembling and refilling them with toner. The final step is testing them to make sure they work as well as new.
Because some customers are wary of remanufactured cartridges, Cartridge King this year started its Gold Crown line, in which only the original shell of a cartridge is reused and all the components inside are replaced.
Cartridge King also sells new cartridges from the original manufacturer. When it comes time for customers to replace them, Cartridge King picks up the empty shell and encourages them to try a remanufactured version, McKenney said.
Remanufactured cartridges cost about 60 percent of what new ones cost, and also put less stress on the environment, McKenney said. About 3 1/2 quarts of oil are used to make the plastic in a new cartridge, he said. A mock-up of a landfill — with layers of dirt, fast-food wrappers and a printer cartridge — sits on the counter of the Wichita location.
Cartridge King's biggest customer is the state of Kansas. Locally, it does business with the Wichita public schools, Wichita State University, the Mennonite Press and others.
Cartridge King has been hurt by the economy just like many for-profit companies, McKenney said, losing money last year despite doing about $5 million in sales. It has suspended production of the Gold Crown line and remanufactured color cartridges "until demand catches up with our inventory."
"It's become a far more competitive business," said McKenney, who became president and CEO of Cartridge King and MCDS in 2008. "We continue to try and sell our mission. We need to reach out to those folks who like the concept of creating jobs for Kansans with disabilities."
But McKenney knows potential customers also care about quality. After taking over in 2008, he points out, he used a remanufactured Cartridge King cartridge for 15 months.
"I'd be talking to groups about this everlasting cartridge," he said. When it finally had to be replaced, "I lost my favorite cartridge and I couldn't tell the story."
