Canon to use recycled steel in printers from 2025

Canon will begin using recycled steel material in its printing products, marking a shift towards more sustainable production methods.

Electric furnace steel sheets, manufactured from steel scrap, will be incorporated in devices such as office multifunction printers, large-format inkjet printers, and commercial presses starting from 2025. This initiative aligns with Canon's commitment to improving its resource recycling rate to 50% by 2030.

Canon has conducted extensive research into the properties of steel, allowing it to refine its recycling processes for electric furnace steel sheets applicable across its product range. Currently, electric furnace steel sheets are produced from steel scrap carefully sorted and refined by Canon Ecology Industry before being manufactured by Tokyo Steel.

The production of electric furnace steel sheets is considered environmentally beneficial since it involves around one-fifth of the CO2 emissions compared to traditional blast furnace methods. Steel ranks as the second most used material in Canon's printing products, after plastic, highlighting the environmental impact this change might have.

Canon Ecology Industry, a Canon group company, is vital in refining steel scrap from used office multifunction devices. This refined steel scrap is then sold to Tokyo Steel, an electric furnace steelmaker that received over 5,000 tons from April 2020 to March 2024.

The recycled electric furnace steel sheets produced by Tokyo Steel will then be used by Canon in new products, thereby enhancing recycling efforts and the efficient use of limited resources.

The company aims to increase the proportion of recycled materials in its production line. Targets have been set at 20% for 2025 and 50% for 2030, following figures of approximately 16% in 2022 and a rise to around 17% in 2023.

Canon's broader recycling initiatives work on improving sorting accuracy for recycled materials and increasing reuse rates of components in addressed multifunction devices. These strategies are intended to boost the types and volumes of internally reused materials.

Canon's strategy is also focused on reducing CO2 emissions. Since 1988, under the Kyosei philosophy, it has pursued environmentally friendly initiatives and has achieved a 44.4% cumulative improvement in lifecycle CO2 emissions since 2008. Canon's goal is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.