On July 21, 2012, twenty young students from the “Saturday Challenge School” at Saitama Municipal Tsuchiai Elementary School participated in Canon’s environmental education traveling class “Used Ink Cartridge Collection and Recycling,” a program that lets children have fun while learning.

The class started by having the children use digital cameras to take their own photos of scenery in the classroom and views from the classroom’s veranda. Although it was the first time for many of the youths to use a digital camera, everyone enjoyed freely taking photos.

Each student selected his or her best shot from among the photos captured, which was then printed out using a PIXUS (PIXMA) inkjet printer. The children gave shouts of delight with each photo that was output.

Afterwards, the students were introduced to Canon’s “Used Ink Cartridge Collection and Recycling” program, which is being conducted at Tsuchiai Elementary School and other locations as part of the Bellmark campaign. By collecting used ink cartridges—an activity households can also easily engage in—schools are able to receive Bellmark points that can be used for educational equipment and materials, while the plastic from the collected ink cartridges can, for example, be reused as raw materials. Through this class, the youths were able to learn about efforts aimed at protecting the environment.

At the end of the class, the children were presented with printouts of their best photographs and an A4-size commemorative photo of the student group.

About the class, the children offered such comments as “It was fun to see beautiful photos being printed out by the printer,” and “I want to support efforts to recycle ink cartridges.”