Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. has posted a profitable return from its resource
recycling system, based on environmental accounting, for the first time
in FY2003.
With environmental issues at the forefront of management challenges,
Fuji Xerox formulated a companywide product recycling policy aimed at
"zero-waste" and the promotion of resource reuse to eliminate
waste from all manufacturing sites as well as in products collected
from customers. In December 1995, Fuji Xerox was the first in the office
equipment industry to offer products using reconditioned parts. Production
volume of copy machines and digital multifunction products that employ
such components has since escalated to more than 200,000 units.
Under the resource recycling system, copy machines, digital multifunction products and other Fuji Xerox devices are dismantled, with those parts that satisfy stringent quality standards reintroduced into the product line. Parts that cannot be reused are classified into a maximum of 44 different categories, depending on the recycling process. The substances and materials are then comprehensively broken down, and even the finest metal, rubber and glass resources are recovered and recycled. This process, which was previously deemed highly difficult, contributes to the realization of zero-waste.
Fuji Xerox has worked over a number of years to enhance the reuse of parts by boosting recovery rates, expanding the number of reconditioned parts through new design processes, streamlining logistics, mechanizing and automating the cleaning processes and increasing the reuse of modules. These efforts have culminated in a turnaround to profitability for the resource recycling system for the first time in its eighth year of existence.
