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Konica Minolta is operating collection and recycling programmes tailored to specific countries, their markets, and legislative requirements. The company’s national operating companies carry out individual solutions for the collection and recycling of the consumables. In Europe, Konica Minolta has adopted measures in conformity with the EU Directive on the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE II). Besides, Konica Minolta is operating the “Clean Planet Program”. It entails a simple and yet sophisticated recycling solution for the consumables of its office and production printing systems in selected countries as well as a take-back service of used toner cartridges for laser printers (Konica Minolta Magicolor and PagePro devices) in 18 European countries.
Find out more on Clean Planet Program
Konica Minolta’s office devices are built for long-life and have a recyclable design, a requirement of the strict environmental label “Blue Angel” that nearly all of its office devices have been awarded with. The devices will be reused after their first use-cycle for another four or five years and sometimes even longer. Konica Minolta carries out initiatives aimed at increasing the recycling rate for office equipment and consumables. For example, Konica Minolta Japan, Inc., a sales company, recovers used office devices. Rather than mechanically crushing the recovered products, partner companies across the country dismantle them by hand, which yields a high recycling rate. Dismantled parts are separated into things such as metal and plastic and sent to different disposal companies for recycling as reusable materials or fuel.
In 2012, Konica Minolta was the first manufacturer worldwide in the printing industry, who integrated the use of recycled plastics for the casing of office devices. Since then, Konica Minolta has been striving to develop innovative technologies to recycle various kinds of plastics. Now, up to 88% of its office devices' outer cases contain recycled materials. Up to 40% of Konica Minolta’s toner bottles are made of recycled milk bottles. Konica Minolta’s target is to replace recycled materials for its entire toner production worldwide, going from the current figure of 25% to 100% in future.
Konica Minolta’s Simitri HD toner has a 40% less environmental impact than conventional toner caused by the raw materials such as biomass for instance.
When recycling paper, it is essential that any toner can be removed from the paper easily. The German association INGEDE e.V., which has a presence across Europe, recognises that the Simitri® HD toner used in Konica Minolta's production printing systems has a very high level of deinkability. This ensures print professionals can be certain they are not printing at the expense of the environment, whilst benefiting from outstanding deinking properties at the same time. In this way, they contribute further to closing the paper loop and recycling, and help reduce water pollution.
Konica Minolta actively reduces packaging and become no. 1 brand in packaging efficiency. For certain office devices the company achieved 50% volume PS foam reduction and 48% plastic weight reduction.
Konica Minolta actively contributes to reforestation. For every bizhub ECO service sold, a tree in the Konica Minolta forest in Kenia is planted. Since 2012, Konica Minolta France has been the main sponsor of the "Marathon Vert de Rennes" (Green Marathon), which helps with reforestation in Ethiopia, India, France and Portugal. For every kilometre the participants run a tree is planted. So, since 2012 almost 725,000 trees have been planted in total.
Biodiversity is addressed in Konica Minolta’s production activities. That means that factors such as water resources, wastewater and greenery are considered. There are set for instance targets to reduce the total water consumption or a risk management systems is established to prevent ecological damage to rivers and lakes. Invasive alien species that are likely to have a negative impact on ecosystems are not planted or sown on the factory’s premises. When planning trees on factory ground, management and protection must be accorded to any rare species that are discovered. The French site has installed six beehives on the roof of the company building. The sales revenue from the honey is donated to a range of charity projects, while the bees contribute naturally to preserving biodiversity.
...and contact our Sustainability Team!
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