STUDENTS from the University of Hertfordshire are asking businesses for their used office equipment as part of a fundraising venture for charity.

The “Think Ink” team is calling on Hertfordshire firms to donate their used toner and ink cartridges from office printers for recycling, as part of their final year assignment in Small Business & Entrepreneurship.

All workers have to do is put their used cartridges in a collection box at their offices, which Think Ink will pick up and take back to their storage unit at the university.

From there, a recycling company will pick up the cartridges, paying a small fee for each donation.

The money will then go towards Age UK’s Spread The Warmth campaign, which aims to cut preventable winter deaths amongst elderly people, as well as the charity’s Cows & Things campaign, where members of the public buy gifts online for developing nations.

So far, Think Ink has received 200 toners from the university, which will pay for an irrigation system in a Third World country.

Other donations have come from Hertfordshire businesses including Ocado, Ramada Jarvis Hotels and development firm Carillion, which helped build the uni’s de Havilland campus and Hertfordshire Sports Village.

Think Ink’s Charlotte Gatehouse said the plan was to continue the initiative long after the founding members – Charlotte, Lorenzo Tennant, Valerie Amegatcher, Dhara Voralia, Mark Blackwell and Ibrahim Kanizi – had finished their course.

“The Think Ink team give businesses the opportunity to take part in a long term charity scheme which is easy, environmentally friendly and free,” she said.

“The university’s Raise and Give Society will be taking over this project in April to allow its good work to continue and to benefit the various charities the society raises for each year.”

To find out more, email Charlotte on c.r.gatehouse@herts.ac.uk