In part two of this sustainability-focused VOX POP, we ask industry leaders how they are responding to the shift toward circular economy principles. We explore the sustainability initiatives OEMs are prioritising and the support they offer to help partners. We then turn to the channel for its view on what else they need from manufacturers to help them meet customer expectations
PrintIT Reseller: Circular economy practices such as recycling, remanufacturing and increased use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials are gaining momentum. Which initiatives are you prioritising to reduce lifecycle impact and support end customers’ sustainability goals?
Marino Keith, National Service Director and Managing Director of Scotland North, Xeretec: End-of-life management is often a regulatory and logistical burden for customers. We prioritise removing that friction by providing a certified, legally compliant disposal and recycling service. This not only de-risks the process for the client but also unlocks the economic and environmental value of a device’s second life.
Beyond the hardware itself, we are highly selective about the vendors with whom we partner, prioritising those who aggressively integrate post‑consumer recycled plastics and recycled metals into their manufacturing. Our primary focus is on the two ends of the spectrum: ensuring the initial production is as low impact as possible through our choice of partners, and ensuring the end-of-service phase is handled through a closed loop system that feeds back into the circular economy.
David Lees, Director, ABS: Leasing refurbished devices allows us to extend their lifecycle while maintaining energyefficient, low impact features, such as polymerised toner and duplex printing. Toner is monitored, so it’s only replaced when needed, and we manage end-of-life collection and recycling. We also work with customers to optimise print usage, helping them reduce waste and achieve their sustainability targets.
Ryan Green, Digital Services Director, Carbon Group: We’re seeing a real shift in how organisations think about circularity, and that’s pushed us to prioritise initiatives that make a meaningful difference across the full lifecycle of print. A big focus for us is expanding the use of recycled and environmentally responsible materials, something reflected throughout our sustainable print proposals where both Canon and Epson devices incorporate recycled components to lower production impact and reduce reliance on virgin resources.
We’re also very clear about the role of remanufacturing. While high quality remanufactured options can help extend the life of existing devices and reduce electronic waste, I’m always transparent with customers that remanufacturing is not, in my view, the long‑term solution for sustainable print When Carbon do offer remanufactured options, we make sure they come from programmes like Canon CU or ES that meet a clearly defined and consistently applied standard and are certified by the original manufacturer.
Alongside this, we’ve put a lot of emphasis on strengthening closed loop consumables programmes, ensuring ink and toner cartridges don’t end up in landfill but instead move through structured collection, dismantling, and recycling processes. Another area where I personally see a real future impact is in the continued development of on‑site material regeneration innovations like Epson’s PaperLab that turns wastepaper into new paper, dramatically cutting water use and keeping resources in local circulation.
This could prove to be genuinely transformative solution as the technology matures for customers looking to embed circularity directly into their day‑to‑day operations.
Warren Colby, Managing Director Print Division, Agilico: Our priority is a circular-first remanufacturing model that keeps devices in use for longer and avoids unnecessary new manufacture. As a business we have aligned our operations with the United Nations’ 17 SDGs.
This move comes as part of the company’s broader commitment to becoming net zero by 2030. Most devices still have up to 80% of their usable life remaining when they reach us, so remanufacturing delivers significant environmental benefit. Agilico Zero devices avoid up to 97.5% of CO2e emissions compared to new machines by bypassing the most carbon-intensive stages of the lifecycle, including raw material extraction, manufacturing and delivery.
Anything that cannot be reused is responsibly recycled through accredited partners to keep waste out of landfill. We also reduce impact beyond the device itself through local UK remanufacturing centres, local logistics, and oxo-biodegradable packaging to reduce plastics and transport emissions.
Michael Field, Managing Director, Workflo Solutions: Our priority is extending device lifecycles wherever possible through refurbishment, redeployment and responsible asset recovery programmes. Alongside this, our zero waste recycling service ensures that empty toner cartridges and print consumables are collected, remanufactured or responsibly recycled, preventing print-related waste from entering landfill while enabling materials to re-enter the supply chain.
We also support customers with print fleet rationalisation, sustainable consumables strategies and structured end-of-life recycling schemes, supported by reporting on waste volumes and carbon savings. Together, these initiatives help organisations reduce waste, lower emissions associated with new device production and disposal and align their print and IT infrastructure with broader ESG objectives.
Nick Taylor, Head of Office Print, Epson UK: Epson is prioritising circular economy initiatives that directly reduce lifecycle impact, guided by our Design for Environment (DfE) process. This includes designing products to use fewer materials, consume less energy, minimise waste and achieve a recyclability rate of 75% or more wherever possible. We also set concrete size, weight and energy-efficiency targets at the planning stage to reduce environmental impact throughout the product lifecycle.
Epson follows a closed loop approach across manufacturing and end-of‑life, collecting and recycling products in multiple regions and investing in refurbishment programmes to extend product life and reduce resource use. Solutions such as PaperLab, our dry-process paper recycling system, also help customers reduce waste and reuse materials onsite. Together, these initiatives support customers’ sustainability goals by reducing material consumption, increasing reuse and recyclability, and improving environmental performance across the product lifecycle.
Matthew Hayman, Head of Governance & Standards, Kyocera Document Solutions UK: Our commitment to free, zero-landfill recycling is an essential initiative to ensure our customers can continue to use their devices, safe in the knowledge that they can be reused and not left to degrade in landfill. The sustainable design and composition of our cartridges, which are 100% recyclable, also minimises the need for alternative disposal methods such as combustion waste disposal.
This is in addition to our 100% carbon mitigation model, whereby all emissions from the production and transportation processes of hardware and consumables come ready offset. This means that our customers’ Scope 3 emissions for the purchase and use of Kyocera devices are zero.
Tatsuo Murakami, Managing Director, RISO UK: We actively combat e-waste by prioritising the reuse of critical electrical components. We reclaim and reuse high-value electrical boards from retired units. Each board undergoes rigorous testing to ensure it meets original factory specifications before being reintegrated into our supply chain. Because RISO’s cold printing technology does not use heat, internal components are not subjected to the thermal stress found in laser printers, allowing them to remain viable for multiple lifecycles.
A major part of our circular strategy involves reducing the number of parts that ever need to enter a landfill. RISO machines have significantly fewer moving parts than toner-based alternatives. We are therefore able to optimise our use of resources by increasing the duration of a product’s useful life and reclaiming materials and parts at the end of its life that can be reused to create further value. Consequently, the value of these parts and products remains in the systems for as long as possible, reducing waste. This approach is intrinsic to our product design process.
Sustainability goals are not just about disposal; they are about daily operation. By eliminating the warm-up phase, we drastically reduce the total carbon footprint over the machine’s lifespan. In addition, our hardware is designed for easier disassembly, ensuring that plastics, metals, and electronics can be separated and sent to specialised recycling streams at the end of their functional life
Kerry Rush, Product Marketing Manager, Sharp UK: Sharp is committed to advancing the circular economy and minimising lifecycle impact and we have prioritised several key initiatives to support this mission. These include significantly increasing the use of PCR materials in our latest product lines – our BP MFP range now incorporates up to 50% PCR materials.
Our software solutions also feature sustainability dashboards, empowering clients to benchmark and monitor their environmental impact. We’re also proud to be investing in energyefficient technologies, such as our ePaper displays, which consume zero watts while displaying content. In the UK, we also offer free toner recycling, helping clients responsibly manage consumables and close the loop on product lifecycles. All these initiatives are part of our broader Sharp Eco-Vision 2050 strategy, which guides our long-term commitment to sustainability.
This strategy is not just a statement it’s a comprehensive approach that influences every aspect of our business, from product development to operations. Through Eco-Vision 2050, we aim to minimise environmental and social impact, support our client’s sustainability goals, and ensure our actions are authentic and transparent at every step.
James Hosking, Sales Director, DSales: Develop UK supports responsible recycling through accredited end-oflife schemes, such as Circular Planet, and our devices are engineered for durability, helping customers lower their overall environmental footprint through extended product life. Our goal is to help customers meet sustainability targets with measurable actions, not just statements.
Lynne Brown, Channel Sales, UK & Ireland, Xerox: Both Xerox and Lexmark have been early pioneers in remanufacturing, are members of the European Remanufacturing Council and the Quocirca Sustainability Alliance. Both companies have once again been named leaders in sustainability by Quocirca in its 2025 report.
Sustainability is woven into the fibre and DNA of our joint company and has been one of our core values for many decades. By uniting our two sustainability visions and portfolios, we’re empowering our partners and clients to meet their own circularity goals. While all three pillars, from design for longevity to efficient use to responsible refurbishment and remanufacturing, are instrumental to our company’s circularity, we have been focusing on our refurbishment and remanufacturing in particular – to truly close the material loop and significantly minimise new material demand.
Enabled by our global hardware and supplies collection programmes, our refurbished and remanufactured devices help us achieve around 90% material reuse by weight on average and up to 99% landfill avoidance. Lexmark and Xerox cartridges can be remanufactured up to 10 times, which is a real differentiator as the industry standard stands at 2-3 times. Recycling only comes as the last resort, when remanufacturing or refurbishment is no longer possible. We also focus on constantly increasing our PCR content.
Xerox has introduced office devices with up to 47% PCR plastic since 2021, with a minimum 25% PCR target for new products. The new Lexmark 9-Series integrates industry-leading 56% PCR (MFPs) and 73% PCR (printers) by weight. AI and IoT increasingly play an important role in driving lifecycle extension.
The Xerox Renewal Advisor and the Lexmark Smart Refresh programme use predictive AI- and IoT-driven device diagnostics and analytics to retain and redeploy devices, prolonging useful life, preventing premature refreshes and cutting embodied carbon at fleet scale. For one of our two EU projects, to which we are the exclusive print OEM partner, we are testing AI and IoT to automate remanufacturing and make it even more efficient and cost-effective.
Louise Marshall, Director of ESG and Organisational Development, Brother UK: Circular economy practices are central to how we’re reducing environmental impact and supporting customers’ sustainability goals. A key priority for Brother is consumables remanufacturing, where we focus on scale and measurable impact.
We’re the only print vendor globally to remanufacture both toner and inkjet cartridges in-house, having already remanufactured more than 40 million toner cartridges and now scaling inkjet remanufacturing through our Recycling Technology Centre at Ruabon. This significantly cuts carbon emissions while maintaining the performance customers expect and rely on. Alongside this, we’re investing in sustainable packaging, moving to fully recyclable, non-polystyrene designs and increasing recycled content to help customers reduce waste and lower emissions.
Stuart Miller, Partner Channel Director, Canon UK & Ireland: When it comes to making sustainable choices, considerations for businesses should not just account for the carbon footprint of a printer during the product use phase, but over the entire product lifecycle. Keeping products, parts and materials in use for longer forms a key part of our global sustainability strategy. In fact, Canon has set a target of achieving a 50% resource recycling rate by 2030.
This begins with creating products that are designed with the ability to have components recycled, replaced or upgraded to extend their lifespan and reduce the amount of waste that makes it to landfill. For example, in the new imageFORCE C7165, Canon has achieved the use of over 30% recycled plastic by weight in the plastic materials used in the main unit. More generally across our wider multifunction printer offering, we are using recycled iron for the steel components. Recycling and re-use initiatives also play a key role when it comes to sustainable innovation.
On top of our ink cartridge recycling programme, our partnership with WBM has diverted 33.8 tonnes of toner cartridge and printer consumable waste from landfill, enabling the recovery of high quality raw materials through an advanced closed loop recycling system. At Canon Imaging Supplies, we are committed to environmental stewardship and responsible sourcing. Our paper suppliers adhere to rigorous standards, ensuring that our products meet the highest sustainability criteria.
Our sustainable zero papers are certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and EU EcoLabel to ensure they are produced as sustainably as possible. This certification provides customers with key proof points to give them confidence in our products and gives channel partners a key differentiator as businesses escalate their ESG commitments.
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