To reduce its environmental footprint, Canon plans to gradually introduce recycled steel into its product ranges from 2025. This material will be used in particular for inkjet and wide-format printers, office multifunctionals and commercial printing presses.
Steel, the 2nd most common material used in Canon machines
By weight, steel is the second most common material used in the brand's printing equipment, after plastic. For its recycling, Canon uses an electric furnace process to reprocess steel waste from end-of-life products. This method, optimized by the Group, generates fewer CO2 emissions than the production of steel by blast furnace from iron ore.
Optimized logistics for recycling
Canon Ecology Industry, a Group subsidiary, is responsible for sorting and purifying the steel recovered from end-of-life printers and multifunction peripherals. This material is then resold to Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. a specialist in electric furnace steel production.
Between April 2020 and March 2024, over 5,000 tonnes of recycled steel were supplied to Tokyo Steel.
50% recycling by 2030
Since 2008, Canon has been striving to reduce its CO2 emissions by 3% per year over the entire lifecycle of its products. Between 2008 and 2023, this policy has achieved a cumulative reduction of 44.4%.
Canon has also set itself a resource recycling rate of 20% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. By 2022, this rate had already risen to 16%.
