Ink cartridges and student budgets don't mix, but some places in the State College area are helping to change that.

Cartridge World, 246 E. Calder Way, opened at the end of January and is a store that focuses on refilling used ink cartridges.

Store owner Hojun Sun said while the store does sell some new cartridges, its main focus is refilling used ones that customers bring to Cartridge World.

Sun said he looked for a career that could make enough money and at the same time, make some contributions to environmental protection. "I strongly believe environmental goods have value to compete in the market."

Cartridge World's ultimate goal is to refill cartridges while the customer waits, but sometimes, the cartridges are older, and it takes longer to clean.

"Almost all cartridges can be saved; it just amounts to how much time it will take," said Adam Oxenreider, the store manager.

Customers can also donate cartridges, and the store recycles and refills them to eventually sell.

Danielle Callovini (junior-nursing), who works at Cartridge World, said the cost of cartridges varies depending on brand; a Hewlett-Packard cartridge costs around $16 to refill.

Kathy Serls, a master franchisee, is responsible for developing Cartridge World stores in Pennsylvania, Delaware and two counties in New Jersey. "One of the main reasons for State College was the big influence with the university and the students, and if anyone is on a strict budget, it would be students," Serls said.

She added that a couple of students at Penn State were asked what they were doing regarding new cartridges, and it didn't sound like there were a lot of options, other than big chain stores.

"It seemed to make sense for this market," Serls said.

Serls and her husband got the idea to start this chain of stores after attending the International Franchise Expo in Washington, D.C. "After printing and printing information, going through a cartridge a week, I said to my husband, 'There's got to be a better way than spending $35 a cartridge,' " Serls said.

Cartridge World started in Australia and then went to the United Kingdom and kept the largest market for last, which they knew was going to be the United States, Serls said.

"Coming into the States, we knew it was going to be our largest market because we know almost everyone has a printer in their home," Serls said.

Cartridge World stores are located in 19 countries, and the chain is currently the largest cartridge refiller in the world, Serls added. Both Serls and Sun went to Adelaide, Australia, to train for two weeks prior to opening each store.

But Cartridge World is not the only place that Penn State students, faculty and staff can get discounted rates.

They can also get new, discounted ink cartridges from The Penn State Computer Store, which has two locations on campus. One is in the Willard Building, and the other is in the new Information Sciences and Technology Building. "We buy from our distributors at educational pricing, and depending on the academic discount, we offer that discount back to the public," manager Robin Becker said.

Becker added that the store is a service of Penn State and is also non-profit. "We try to stay competitive with our ink prices and check around and try to keep them as low as possible," Becker said.

Julie Wolf (junior-nursing) and Courtney Reichart (junior-nursing) said the prices for new ink cartridges are not ideal. "I think prices are ridiculous," Wolf said.

They both said students probably try to avoid using their personal printers because of the high costs.