Printing with soybeans could be a new way to save oil in schools and businesses, thanks in part to a Standish company.

Print Recovery Concepts Inc. is distributing the first soy-based printer cartridges for laser printers.

The new cartridges will use black toner powder made in Europe from soybeans in American-made recycled printer cartridges. Every cartridge will come with a return envelope so customers can recycle the cartridges after use.

Rick Greenlaw, company vice president of marketing, said consumers in the United States go through 100 million laser printer cartridges a year and that each cartridge contains one pound of toner powder derived from oil. That’s 200 to 300 million liters of oil, Greenlaw said.

“I think we’ll see a lot of these bio-based solutions,” Greenlaw said, adding that he thinks market-based solutions for environmental problems are the way to go.

The University of Maine at Orono has tested the new soy-based toner powder, Greenlaw said, as well as other colleges. Several thousand of the cartridges will be ready to ship in October.

“I think this is just the beginning,” Greenlaw said.

Print Recovery Concepts Inc. has been based in Standish for the last six of its 15 years. The company already markets regular printer cartridges.

Greenlaw said the soy-based toner powder looks and acts the same as petroleum-based powder and the cartridges cost the same as name brand cartridges. The company will start by selling 20-30 cartridge models for the most common Hewlett-Packard printers, and the company eventually plans to expand.

The effort, Greenlaw said, “has been driven by knowing and believing that people will be interested in this cartridge because it’s more green.”

“Nobody else has this cartridge right now,” Greenlaw said. “I’m getting phone calls from universities all over the country.”

For more information, visit soyprint.net.