Historically, office equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Ricoh, disposed of ‘retired’ photocopiers and printers by exporting them to Asia as landfill.

Neville Cooper, quality and environment manager, Ricoh Australia, says, “It was after senior Ricoh management viewed video footage a few years ago exposing the adverse environmental impact of IT waste from western countries being dumped in China, that Ricoh actively made a decision not to contribute.

“We then began a process of targeting our own equipment as it was retired, to ensure that it would be returned to us for recycling.

Ricoh now assumes responsibility for the end-of-life of its office printing and copying products and is able to guarantee a recycling rate of at least 95 per cent of the materials in the machines.

An important part of the success of this process was a collaboration with the Office Technology Recyclers (OTR).

The OTR was formed in Australia to encourage companies to follow the European trend where it is mandatory for OEMs to recycle their products. Although it is still optional in Australia, Ricoh approached OTR to be its recycling partner. Following a trial programme throughout 2006 Ricoh is now set to formalise an exclusive Green Partnership with OTR.

With a staff of 46 people, OTR operates workshops in all Australian mainland capital cities and has a capacity for storage and recycling of 200 machines at each site.

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