Epson Introduces a Recyclable Printer

Epson’s EC-01 inkjet printer is the top product in their new Environmental Vision 2050 initiative. Epson has set the following four key conditions in order to work towards achieving Environmental Vision 2050:

• Reduction of CO₂ emissions by 90% across the entire product life cycle.
• Inclusion of all products in the resource reuse and recycling loop.
• Reduction of direct CO₂ emissions by 90%, and elimination of global warming gas emissions other than CO₂.

The printer is shipped in an unpainted recycled cardboard box, the manual is printed on recycled paper, and the included driver CD is stored within an envelope made of recycled paper. But what really sets this printer apart is that you don’t replace the ink: when the cartridge runs out, you replace the whole printer. Great, huh?

Via TCD blog

Toshiba Recycles Your Toner Right on the Spot

If you own a laser printer and ever did an online shopping for printer toner cartridges, you, probably, noticed here and there a waste bottles being sold along with consumables. These very bottles are where unused tone is utilized when not applied to form image. That happens because of mechanism of laser printing is not perfect and yet to be optimized.

Toshiba intends to eliminate this embarrassing flaw. The company is implementing its recyclable toner technology into more MFP machines. The technology allows collecting waste toner that is not applied to the page and feeding it back into printer cartridge, so it can be used over again.

The technology is supposed to solve environmental problems caused by disposing of waste toner. On the other hand, it would increase cost-effectiveness of toner cartridge, since more pages per cartridge could be printed.

For now, the system works only with mono printers, however “it will take a bit longer to introduce it to colour machines as it needs a different mechanical approach, but ultimately we aim to introduce it there too,” says Jamie Mackenzie, Product Manager at Toshiba.