This North American certification joins HP’s existing FSC-certified portfolio in Latin America.

The company says more than 40 percent of its total tonnage worldwide is now FSC-certified and/or contains at least 30 percent post-consumer waste. HP’s goal is that 50 percent or more of HP-branded paper will be FSC-certified or have at least 30 percent post-consumer waste content by the end of 2015.

HP has also expanded its return and recycling program in an effort to help printing customers reduce their environmental impact, the company says.

The program, HP Planet Partners, enables customers to recycle used original HP cartridges in 56 countries and territories. Office Depot, in its inaugural year supporting HP’s Planet Partner efforts, will offer HP ink recycling in more than 1,100 stores across the United States.

Collaborating with retailers such as Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and Walmart, HP is expanding its cartridge collection network, which is anticipated to include more than 9,000 retail outlets worldwide. Staples has supported HP recycling efforts for more than five years and expanded in 2012 to include free hardware recycling across North America. Together, HP and Staples have collected more than 40 million pounds of ink and toner cartridges and hardware for recycling.

To date, HP customers worldwide have recycled more than half a billion HP ink and LaserJet toner cartridges with HP Planet Partners, the company says. Through this and other efforts, HP aims to recycle 3.5 billion pounds of electronic products and supplies by the end of 2015.

HP’s closed loop plastics recycling process uses plastic from recycled original HP ink and toner cartridges and other post-consumer sources to create new cartridges. To date, HP has used more than 118 million pounds of recycled content, keeping 280 million cartridges and a milestone of 2 billion post-consumer plastic bottles out of landfills, the company says.

In addition, HP says when compared to new (or virgin) plastic, the recycled plastic used in its ink cartridges produced in 2010 and beyond has up to an estimated 33 percent smaller carbon footprint than virgin plastic in its original ink cartridges — even when accounting for the impact associated with collecting, transporting and processing used cartridges and plastic bottles. HP also estimates this plastic reduces total water used by up to 89 percent.