Epson zaps the green lobby with return and recycle lasers

newsguy 0 Tallied Votes 203 Views Share

Epson is making a play for the green printer market by launching a laser toner cartridge return and recycle programme as part of a long term commitment to be more environmentally friendly in its dealings with customers regarding printing solutions. The new scheme, here in the UK at any rate, pretty much ensures that all users of Epson laser printers can reduce their carbon footprint if they wish so to do.

The new scheme allows for organisations of any size, from the one man band to the biggest enterprise, by offering two different free to use options in order to make the whole recycling process as easy and efficient as possible. Larger organisations can visit the Epson website to order a reusable branded recycle-box made from recycled materials, which can hold up to 30 laser toner cartridges. Place empty carts in the box, when full contact Epson via the website and they will come and collect it. Smaller outfits can do the same via downloading bar-coded pre-paid postage labels for individual cart returns. The collected cartridges are returned by the most environmentally efficient means to a European hub where the components are recycled, ensuring optimal re-use of all the different materials.

Mark Karsey, Business Manager at Epson UK commented, "Epson has demonstrated a clear commitment to reducing its impact on the environment for many years now, and the new toner cartridge Return&Recycle programme is another example of our global focus on sustainability. This new scheme complements our existing toner cartridge collection programme, in which we aim to take complete ownership of toner cartridge recycling on behalf of our customers; helping organisations to reduce landfill waste without any additional service cost or hassle for them. Aside from reducing waste, the use of recycled materials can cut the energy required during the manufacturing process, reducing the carbon footprint of products that are manufactured from the cartridge materials in the future."

UrbanKhoja 89 Practically a Posting Shark Featured Poster

I'm pretty sure that Lexmark have been doing this for some time now, when you receive a new Lexmark toner cartridge it'll include a UPS Waybill returns lable in order to send your old one back for recyling. Quite simply put the old one in the box, call UPS - they collect it - done!

It's nice Epson are taking the incitive to lower their carbon footprint but they really should
be clearer with the facts.

Most larger organisations are coupling this with a MPS sytem, (Managed print service) so that toner is only ever order when it's needed - saving wasted toner, wasted orders and wasted money. This also allows supplys managers to check track of what is going where and how much of it.

Dazza :cool:

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