Page 20 - Print 21 Magazine Jul-Aug 2020

Sustainability
Green
printing
Toner-based digital presses are making great strides
in their environmental credentials, reports
Anyone whose hair includes grey strands will easily recall print
as a not exactly clean process. Until 30 years ago, it was positively hazardous. But since then, the industry has made huge headway. Gone are the nasty chemicals, the worst solvents and the chucking of waste in the bin. Today’s print process is cleaner than it has ever been – and getting cleaner.
And it is a good job it is. Any printer aiming to work with government, corporates, or ad agencies will have to satisfy some environmental credentials before anything else.
Today’s customers may not be satisfied with a label or certificate. They will want to drill deeper. You may find yourself fielding questions about your waste procedures,
your end-of-life strategy for your equipment, your power sources, or your delivery options.
The rapid evolution of platemaking from the status of dirty chemistry
to process-free has gained much attention. But what about the digital printing systems – in particular the toner-based cutsheet printers that now dominate A3 printing?
The big four – Canon, Fuji
Xerox, Konica Minolta, and Ricoh
– are acutely environmentally conscious, and have poured money and resources into pivoting their businesses into the environmentally friendly camp.
Ricoh on Global 100
Ricoh has spent each of the last
ten years on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations list. The company’s promotion of sustainable environmental management focuses on four pillars: energy conservation
20 Print21 JULY/AUGUST 2020
Wayne Robinson.
and the prevention of global warming; resource conservation and recycling; pollution prevention; and conservation of biodiversity.
But the company is not just focused on itself. It has programmes to help its customers monitor and reduce waste, cost, complexity and CO2 to improve their environment and sustainability credentials.
Its consumables recycling program is free to customers as part of its goal to reach zero waste-to-landfill. The program has so far recycled 1100 tonnes of toner cartridges. The
programme includes a free pickup service for qualifying customers and a reply-paid return service. In other words, no costs to the print business.
Ricoh says it was recycling its machines and parts before there
were regulations to do it, so its products avoid ending up in landfill. Its recycling programme covers end of life devices and spare parts from Ricoh devices or any third-party machines. Since the programme started, 180 tonnes of devices have been recycled into reusable materials.
For Ricoh, sustainability begins at
End of life: printer is collected by Simms Recycling where 92 per cent of it is recycled – plastic, metal, copper, wiring.
The toner is polymerised, which reduces gas emissions during manufacture by up to 40 per cent.
Front door plastic comprises 25 per cent recycled material, aiming for 100 per cent by 2025. Can withstand heat from toner fuser process.
Used toner cartridges recycled by Close the Loop, plastic and metal separated, plastic recycled into roads, park benches.