Resources and circular economy

We're shaping a circular economy by reducing, reusing and recycling

Plastic waste represents a vast squandering of precious raw materials and natural resources, as well as needless consumption of energy and release of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. A significant amount of plastic waste still goes to landfills or gets burned – a trend that by 2050 could account for 20% of global oil consumption and 15% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions.

We believe that products can be designed from the outset to help cut waste and emissions over their lifetimes. Therefore, we have set a goal to make our products from more than 90% circulated resources (recycled materials and biomaterials) by 2050 (“towards zero natural resources”). We also aim to enable the reuse and recycling of materials as many times as possible. Part of that involves accelerating initiatives for the recovery and recycling of end-of-life products and packaging materials.

We're reducing the use of primary resources

We aim to reduce the use of primary resources as far as possible.

Recycled materials in print devices and toner bottles

• Our office devices contain up to 45.1% recycled plastic (or up to 40.4% according to the German Blue Angel mark).
• We produce toner bottles that contain up to 60% recycled high density polyethylene (HDPE) made from empty milk bottles.
• We aim is to use recycled materials for our entire toner production worldwide.

Lighter product design

By making our printing devices lighter, we reduce the use of raw materials, energy consumption during production and transport, and the environmental impact of disposal. That's why we're continuously working to reduce the size and weight of our office and production printing devices while improving their performance. For example, the weight of the AccurioPress C7100 digital printing system has been reduced by approximately 25% compared to conventional machines.

Find out about our printing devices.

Printing on recycled paper

All our bizhub devices offer trouble-free processing of recycled paper that meets EN 12281 (the European standard for copy paper for dry toner imaging processes).

Reducing paper consumption

Our printing devices offer features and settings to help users print in more resource-efficient ways.

• Duplex (double-sided) printing and the N-up function (to print multiple pages on a single sheet) help save consumables and energy.
• Defaulting to monochrome printing, using colour only when truly necessary.
• Automatic deletion of blank pages during copy and scan processes avoids waste.
• Follow-Me Printing means a user must actively decide whether a document needs printing. This prevents unnecessary reheating cycles and wasteful 'forgotten' printouts.
• Saving copy programmes as favourites or using existing templates (like ID card copy) helps ensure direct selection of the correct settings, which minimises misprints and the associated waste.

Reducing waste in production

All Konica Minolta factories are working under a certified ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. Additionally, Konica Minolta has developed an own factory certification system, which is applied to own and main supplier’s factories. As part of this, Konica Minolta has implemented a variety of measures to reduce and recycle waste generated in the manufacturing. Focus areas include reducing the amount of waste discharged to plastic mill ends; reducing wastewater discharge; and cutting packaging waste. This process has cut waste substances by 540 tonnes in fiscal year 2023 compared to the previous FY 2022.

Cutting packaging waste during transportation

Although styrene foam is widely used, it has a poorer environmental performance than other materials. which is why we've been looking for packaging solutions to replace it. In 2019, for transport from our factories to Europe, we developed an air cushioning material for packaging and transporting MFPs. Using the lighter, more compact air pillows enables us to reduce the weight of shipments by 70% and the packaging volume by 84% compared to our previous packaging. In addition, we're committed to the use of cardboard. In some cases we've more or less eliminated packaging. Units shipped from the European warehouse in Emmerich to our European customers are simply shrink-wrapped on pallets. Initiatives undertaken in 2021 reduced the environmental impact of packing through the supply chain (from procurement through to recycling) by approximately 1,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

We're reusing end-of-life products and consumables

We aim to reuse end-of-life products and consumables as far as possible. Across Europe and Japan, we refurbish and refill toner bottles and cartridges. And throughout our European operations, print devices are cleaned and reused for at least another four or five years after their first use-cycle, instead of being disposed of.