One of shopping’s best bargains (especially for anyone who works in an office) is the refund for every empty toner cartridge brought back to the shop. For shoppers regularly at Staples who had access to multiple printers, the rebate maxed out at $30 each month at $3 per cartridge.

Staples got a supply of cartridges, we all recycled and helped the planet and you could pocket a cool $360 every year in *stuff*. And Staples is one of those places you go and get *stuff* even if you don’t exactly need any that day. Costco is the other bricks and mortar store that acts that way, but Costco stuff means $150 and Staples stuff is usually less than $10.

But the office supply chain has cut the discount from $3 to $2. You can still turn in 10 each month, and a $20 rebate that also helps the planet is still pretty great. It’s just 1/3 less great than it was.

Kudos to Staples for not killing off the program and at least still providing a rebate. (No, I’m not naive enough to think that they offset the rebate. But that doesn’t impact my wallet or yours…)