For years the circular-economy argument for remanufactured cartridges lived mostly in policy documents. In late 2026 it has moved into orders. Public-sector tenders in Germany, Italy, Chile and India are now awarding or preparing to award contracts in which rebuilt and equivalent compatible cartridges compete with original products — and in some cases are specified by name.

Germany: two frameworks that explicitly include rebuilt products

The clearest signal comes from the German state of Saxony. Its IT services organisation, Sächsische Informatik Dienste (SID), published framework SID 2026-01 DR on 24 September 2026, with bids due by 12:00 on 26 October 2026. The documentation states that the objective is to establish framework agreements covering OEM consumables and “equivalent compatible or rebuilt” products.

• Lot 1 – Kyocera printer consumables
• Lot 2 – HP, Samsung and Canon
• Lot 3 – Lexmark, Brother, Epson, Primera and other brands

The initial term is 36 months, with an option to extend each agreement by up to a further year. Price carries 100 per cent of the stated award weighting, so the commercial case matters as much as the technical one.

Separately, the City of Hamm has opened a four-year consumables framework with a maximum value of about €1.4 million that allows OEM, NewBuild, Refill and Rebuild products to compete, with product testing forming part of the evaluation.

Italy: the sixth edition of a repeat programme

Italy’s national social-security institute INPS has launched the sixth edition of its procurement for remanufactured toner cartridges and other printer and copier consumables. The 48-month procurement carries an estimated value of €737,704.92 excluding VAT, divided between Milan, Rome and Palermo. The important detail is the edition number: remanufactured cartridges are no longer a pilot, they are an established line item.

Chile and India: two more routes into reuse

Chilean procurement documents increasingly distinguish remanufactured cartridges from newly manufactured compatibles. A 2026 procurement by the Subsecretaría de Seguridad Pública allows original and/or remanufactured toner, while other documents go further and treat the two categories separately — useful recognition for suppliers whose process genuinely involves remanufacturing rather than rebuilding from new parts.

India takes a third route: some public bodies buy the service rather than the product. The Department of Public Enterprises currently runs a Government e-Marketplace procurement for refilling existing printer cartridges, alongside other public-sector requirements covering refill and repair.

The picture is still fragmented

This is not a universal shift. Monitoring continues to find tenders that specify original cartridges only, and others that exclude remanufactured products outright. But the direction of travel in 2026 is clear enough to plan for.

What suppliers need to have ready

• Yield evidence per batch – tested to ISO/IEC 19752 for monochrome and ISO/IEC 19798 for colour, with a stated defect allowance
• Compliance paperwork – REACH and RoHS declarations, WEEE and EPR registration numbers, safety data sheets
• Traceability – batch numbers and test records that let you answer questions after delivery
• Commercial references – Saxony, for example, requires three comparable printer-consumables supply references from the previous five years
• Partner or certification status – evidence of authorised or certified partner standing, or an equivalent classification
• Financial standing – minimum turnover thresholds apply in several of these frameworks

ZCV Image supplies compatible toner cartridges, drum units and toner powder for Kyocera, Canon, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp and Xerox equipment, with batch-level testing and documentation available for tender submissions. If you are preparing a bid and need yield data, compliance declarations or product references, contact us at zcv.image@gmail.com or +86-755-28753582.