The company made 200m original HP injket print cartridges from recycled plastic in 2007 and since the pilot programme, it has used enough recycled plastic to fill more than 200 tractor trailers.

Last year, HP used more than 5m pounds (2,268 metric tonnes) of post-consumer recycled plastic, including both water bottles and print cartridges, from landfill and it has committed to using twice as much in 2008.

Michael Hoffmann, senior vice president for the supplies, imaging and printing group at HP, said the technology reduced the company's impact on the environment.

"HP's considerable investments in building a recycling infrastructure made this achievement possible, and this is just the beginning of what we hope to accomplish," Hoffmann said.

HP's Planet Partners programme offers free and easy cartridge returns in more than 45 countries, regions and territories, with a commitment that all returned cartridges would be recycled.

The multi-phase recycling process reduces the cartridges to raw materials, such as plastics and metals. HP then combines plastic from the inkjet cartridges with recycled bottle resin and a suite of compounding additives.

The total plastic in a cartridge is 70-100% recycled content, while stringent testing ensures consistency and reliability of the product.

HP is set to receive an environmental stewardship award from the Society of Plastics Engineers at the Global Plastics Environmental Conference in March.