Recycling Systems
Global Collection and Recycling System
To foster a recycling-oriented society, Canon is building collection and recycling systems in Japan, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania for used products.
To make recycling easier, we are also developing inverse manufacturing (IM), which anticipates recycling from the design and development stage. Our goal is to minimize resource use and waste throughout the product lifecycle.
Canon Global Collection and Recycling System
Compliance with the WEEE Directive in Europe
The WEEE Directive* went into effect in February 2003 in the European Union. Participating countries are establishing and amending relevant laws and building the infrastructure to collect and recycle products.
Against this background, Canon is responding to the WEEE Directive by displaying labels on its products to indicate separation categories for collection and providing pertinent information to users.
Furthermore, the marketing subsidiaries responsible for sales in the EU countries, underpinned by the management of our European marketing headquarters, are participating in local recycling consortia regarding products for business or individual consumers and promoting the construction of original recycling schemes. We are also carrying out manufacturer registration in accordance with the laws of each country and covering expenses incurred for collection and recycling systems.
Regarding parts and materials targeted under the WEEE Directive for appropriate treatment in the collection and separation of waste products, it is vital to provide the requisite information to the recycler (intermediate processing contractor) concerning the component parts and materials of equipment and hazardous substances included in products. Accordingly, the marketing subsidiaries in each EU country are formulating frameworks for the provision of data needed and requested by processing companies.
- *WEEE Directive
This EU directive requires manufacturers to recover or recycle devices after use to prevent environmental pollution caused by waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Establishing Collection and Recycling Sites in Japan
Canon has 10 centers throughout Japan for the collection of used products, primarily business machines. In addition to already operating a trade-in collection system, since April 2006 we have been certified under the regional industrial waste accreditation system for the Canon Green Recycling Service*, under which used Canon business machines are collected and processed for recycling. This initiative helps reduce customers' workload, because it is no longer necessary to issue and manage slips when processing used Canon business machines as industrial waste, enabling a higher collection rate for used products.
Canon previously outsourced the recycling of used products collected in Japan to a number of contractors. Since 2004, this system has been consolidated into sites around Japan operated by four companies: Group companies Canon Ecology Industry and Top Business Machines, along with one recycling contractor in Hokkaido and one in Okinawa.
- *Service charges incurred on collected waste equipment (disposal costs)
Introduction of IM Information Management System
To promote effective recycling, since 2005 Canon has operated an IM* information management system at its collection and treatment sites in Japan.
This system barcodes used products at the time of collection enabling them to be traced effectively and managed throughout the collection and recycling processes.
Using this system, Canon gathers data on the progress of recycling treatment at each of its sites on a database. Canon Inc., Group companies and other parties involved in recycling treatment use this database.
- *IM (Inverse Manufacturing)
Inverse manufacturing is a product design and production process that replaces the final "disposal" stage in the usual manufacturing process of "design, production, use, disposal" with "collect, disassemble, sort, reuse." The design and manufacture of new products anticipates on product recycling and facilitates efficient parts reuse and materials recycling.
