MNN - Mother Nature Network

Fr. Bernard McCoy of the Cistercian Order of monks created LaserMonks in 2002 to provide a lower cost alternative to expensive factory toner replacements.  Based out of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Sparta, Wis., the LaserMonks website has a section for its original inexpensive toners, another section to buy Gregorian chants CDs and an email-based prayer request link.  This holy printing business has gone green and now offers a line of soy-based toner cartridges.

"Environmentally, using soy-based toners is a win-win situation ... industry leaders report that it takes about 2 liters of oil to make 1 lb of toner powder required for each oil-based cartridge. U.S. businesses, organizations, educational institutions and governmental agencies currently consume more than 100 million cartridges per year. That equates to 100 million pounds or approximately 50,000 tons of material petroleum is used to produce." Source: LaserGreenMonks

The company currently has soy-based toner cartridges available for a variety of HP LaserJet and Canon LaserClass models.  The sustainable soy toners were tested for output and a cartridge printed anywhere from 7 percent to 31 percent more pages than its non-soy counterpart did.