Hewlett Packard and the mysterious alignment sheets

I have a Hewlett Packard all-in-one printer. I wish I didn't. The print cartridges are expensive and every time I load a new cartridge the machine spits out an alignment sheet. I am then supposed to put the sheet on the scan bed, scan it, and this completes a magical alignment process which is supposed to make my print quality better. This also happens when I power up too. Page after page of wasted ink, wasted paper.

In my view this process makes no difference to the print quality, is irritating and time consuming, and is not helping me reduce my impact on resources.

I googled the problem and found a lot of others anguished about the same issue. I got onto the HP forum (you have to register to do this, another waste of time - I can't imagine why HP needs to know the identity of everyone raising questions about their products) and followed their advice...which is basically to keep aligning, try cleaning, maybe even try buying yet more cartridges to see if they work. But they didn't address the underlying problem - why can't I choose NOT to align.

I've raised that question.  Will wait to see what happens.

This raises a diffcult question for me - the kind of environmental paradox that has no clear answer.  Is it better for me to continue using this HP product while it  (deliberately? surely not) wastes cartridges, packing, paper ink and power, but I am not throwing away the product itself.  Or is it better for me to get rid of this product and find a greener alternative.  Hm, I think probably holding onto the printer has to be the best option...?

Certainly, if something untoward happened to the printer, like it died a natural death, or someone in a fit of rage put a hammer through it, I would not, under any circumstances, buy another HP printer.