Page 17 - Print 21 magazine Jul-Aug 2021

Green Printing
In Australia, Canon reduces the impact of its sales, marketing and logistics activities by increasing the use of renewable energy, reusing products and parts where possible, and actively promoting national product stewardship and recycling programs.
Canon Australia is a long-
term partner of environmental organisations such as the Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform (ANZRP), global recycling program Cartridges for Planet Ark (C4PA) – of which it is a founding member – and the Australian Battery Recycling Initiative (ABRI), working to ensure it plays its part in minimising and closing the loop on e-waste in the region.
“In 2020, Canon Oceania set
a target to reduce our direct greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 per cent per year for 10 years. Over the last decade, we have achieved more than a 70 per cent drop in emissions,” adds Leslie.
“Later initiatives have included installing solar power at our Australian HQ, in addition to Canon NZ achieving a Carbon Neutral Certification.
“Canon has continually been innovating in the print production space by introducing new printing technology that requires lower energy consumption such as the UVgel, on the Colorado.”
Fujifilm Business
Innovation
The Versant Series and Iridesse Production Press are part of the Fujifilm Environmentally Conscious Products and Services Program.
These two production press series have the Fujifilm Group Green Value Products certification, which is given to environmentally conscious products and services that are “excellent in reducing environmental impact”.
The Green Value Products certification programme is for products and services that reduce environmental impact throughout their life cycle, from acquisition of raw materials, production, usage, disposition, all the way through reuse.
The Versant 180 and Versant 3100 Press Series, as well as the Iridesse Production Press, hold a Silver level of contribution to the reduction of environmental impact.
The Silver level indicates
products and services that reduce environmental impact at their respective industries’ standard level or greater. It ensures requirements of major environment labels for energy consumption, hazardous substances, audible sound level during operation, and recyclable design, are all satisfied.
Fujifilm BI customers interact with its recycling system by returning used parts and consumables to the company.
It’s not just the presses themselves, though, that Fujifilm
is working on. Its head office and five other sites have been certified ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System by SAI Global. The certification covers the sale, distribution, installation, training, service support, and maintenance for business machines; the collection and recycling of equipment and related spare parts and consumables; the design and remanufacture of business machine parts and sub- assemblies; the sale and support of software solutions; and the provision of document management services.
The company has also won
a Banksia Award, Leading in Sustainability – Setting the Standard for Large Organisations. The judges commented: “Through a commitment to reducing the impact of their products and customers’ footprint,
as well as their total approach to product innovation and supply chain management, the judges understood that Fujifilm is an example of a highly evolved and integrated approach to sustainability.”
HP Indigo
HP Indigo has a deal with Close the Loop which enables HP Indigo users to have their used consumables collected by Close the Loop at no
cost. Those users can also rest easy
in the knowledge that their used consumables will be given a multitude of new purposes, with none going into landfill, being burned, or being dumped into poor countries.
The Take Back Program has been taken up with gusto by much of the local HP Indigo user base, with around three quarters of all users in Australia and New Zealand now participating. Bernie Robinson CEO of HP indigo supplier Currie Group says, “We
are really pleased with the level of customer engagement in the recycling programme. Our aim is to have
100 per cent of all used HP Indigo consumables collected by Close the Loop and go through the programme.
“It is a real win-win story. HP Indigo users can confidently go to market with a message of sustainability, and one for which there is no cost to them. The environment clearly benefits as all that plastic, metal and ink is not put into landfill or otherwise disposed of.”
There is unlikely to be another industry sector that has moved so far environmentally, and so fast, as print.
HP South Pacific Industrial country manager Craig Walmsley says, “Working closely with Currie Group and Close the Loop has been instrumental in making the Take Back Program so successful.”
The Take Back Program sees both the metal ink cans from Series 2 and 3 presses, and the Series 4 plastic ink tubes collected and recycled. Waste is also sent back to Israel for remanufacturing.
In Australia each year some 300,000 tonnes of plastic goes into landfill; Close the Loop though is aiming to divert much of that into roads. Each kilometre of road made from recycled product has either 530,000 used plastic bags, 12,300 used printer cartridges
or 168,000 recycled plastic bottles in
it. HP Indigo waste comes in several forms; the metal ink cans from the Series 2 and Series 3 presses, the plastic ink tubes from the Series 4 presses, and the BIDs (binary ink developers). The metal ink cans have the plastic head removed, which is then shredded, put into a sack with thousands of
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