Brother first OEM to receive revised Blue Angel for remanufactured product
July 31, 2023
Brother was the first company to be awarded the revised Blue Angel DE-UZ 177 (2021) for one of its remanufactured toner cartridges.
Brother received the certification based on a series of independent tests and thorough audits conducted over a two-year period at the Krupina, Slovakia remanufacturing facility.
According to the Blue Angel, the aim of awarding the eco-label for remanufactured toner cartridges and ink cartridges is to reduce the amount of waste and thus contribute to the conservation of resources.
The eco-label places requirements on the materials used, the colour former (in the case of Brother, the toner used), emissions into the air during the printing process and the performance characteristics of toner or ink cartridges.
TN-3512 RE toner received certification after Brother demonstrated that the company reuses components, that make up at least 75% of the product weight, every cartridge is remanufactured in like-new quality and full traceability of all components is guaranteed.
Craig McCubbin, Managing Director at Brother Industries UK and Brother’s global Remanufacturing Technology Centre, said: “We have worked since 2021 to meet the revised Blue Angel criteria, which demonstrates our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and conserving resources underlines. One of Europe’s leading sustainability certificates confirms the progress we have made in this area and gives our customers the guarantee that buying and refurbishing Brother toner cartridges is an environmentally friendly way to print.”
“We are pleased that Brother was the first OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to receive certification according to the revised award criteria for “Remanufactured toner cartridges and ink cartridges for printers, copiers and multifunction devices (DE-UZ 177, 2021 edition)”. The demanding certification process includes testing the materials used by Brother and the performance characteristics of the monochrome toner. In addition, the toner must be intended for low-emission office equipment and meet our strict requirements for the release of fine and ultrafine particles during printing,” said Christoph Eßer-Ayertey, Head of the RAL Environmental Department.
“We are all very proud at Brother of this great achievement,” added McCubbin. “The fact that Brother is the first OEM in the world to achieve this is a testament to our hard work and determination and proves that Brother is with is in a league of its own with its toner recycling capabilities.
“Thanks to the EcoDesign of our cartridges, we are able to recycle around 85% of all toner cartridges collected. 0% of the genuine cartridges we receive back end up in landfill as our sites are accredited as zero-waste landfills. Given the volume, this is a tremendous achievement. On average, we can even reuse more than 75% of the weight of all our models.
“As a company we have been committed to collecting, recycling and most importantly refurbishing used toner cartridges for 18 years and I can safely say that no other printer manufacturer is doing this to the same level as us.”
To date, Brother has remanufactured nearly 40 million original toner cartridges and has ambitious plans to increase this number and introduce more remanufacturing processes into its portfolio.
Craig McCubbin added: “We have ambitious plans and are continually increasing our recycling capacity while ensuring nothing goes to landfill. Together with our customers and partners, we are developing new ways for the sustainable reprocessing and recycling of our print portfolio.
“Our commitment also extends to all of our other comprehensive sustainability activities. We are determined to make our processes as circular as possible. This commitment to the circular economy is reflected in our Environmental Vision 2050, in our ambitious goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 65% by 2030 and becoming carbon neutral in all business areas by 2050, which is certified by the Science Based Targets (SBTi) initiative.”
Blue Angel certified TN-3512 RE toner is currently used under exclusive B2B contracts in Europe.
Categories : World Focus
Tags : Blue Angel Brother Certification Remanufactured cartridges Sustainability
