The OEM demanded the EU boost take-back, increase remanufactured component use in cartridges, and promote remanufacturing through user labelling.
Lexmark “applauds” the EU’s recent circular economy plans, and asked the EU to “curb printer cartridge waste in Europe” while also calling on the European cartridge industry to “help promote cartridge reuse and recycling”, adding that it is “pushing for the EU to require” a wide range of new initiatives.
These include: for all suppliers to “provide a free take-back facility for cartridges they place on the European market”; for all cartridges sold in Europe by 2020 to “include 50 percent remanufactured components or be recyclable”; for compulsory environmental criteria to “be introduced into public procurement” relating to cartridges; that remanufacturing and recycling of products “be promoted by user labelling intended to guarantee quality operating performance”; and that landfilling or incineration of cartridges “without energy recovery” be made illegal, while also providing incentives “for suppliers to collect and reuse their products”.
This “call to action” for the industry is because Lexmark estimates 30,000 to 50,000 tonnes of cartridges end up in landfill each year “as a result of the industry’s poor rate of collection from customers”, and adds it has “already made strides” in reducing waste through its Lexmark Cartridge Collection Programme and the Corporate Cartridges line. Remanufacturing is now a “core part of Lexmark’s business”, and by 2018 it aims to reuse 50 percent “by weight” of returned cartridges, an increase from its current figure of 34 percent.
It pointed out that the LCCP collection rate is 35 percent, “nearly twice the industry average”, with none “sent to landfill or for incineration”, while recycling a used Lexmark toner cartridge “reduces its total carbon footprint by more than 50 percent”. Finally, the Corporate Cartridges line can not only include up to 90 percent of reused components, but 92 percent of “all Lexmark cartridges” contain “post-consumer recycled content”
The OEM is also a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s ‘Circular Economy 100’ programme, and contributed to the European Commission’s ‘Preparatory Consultation on the Circular Economy’ by calling for “legislative and regulatory changes”, while asking to “allow companies that apply good environmental practice to compete on fair terms with those that do not”.
Udo Schlauch, General Manager for Lexmark’s EMEA Annuities and Channel, commented: “The concept of the circular economy is something that Lexmark has supported since it was founded in 1991 and the remanufacturing of printer cartridges has been at the core of the company’s business strategy since day one.
“With the European Commission having now published its new proposals for promoting the circular economy the timing is perfect to call on the printer cartridge industry in Europe to support measures to curb waste by encouraging reuse and recycling. We now call on our industry to promote sound practice and good policy to alleviate the issues around printer cartridge waste and the poor rates of collection and reuse.”
Source: http://www.therecycler.com/posts/lexmark-demands-improved-cartridge-reuse-and-remanufacturing/
