Lexmark showcase for circular economy projects

March 22, 2023

Lexmark has been named as demo partner for two new EU-funded projects to build circular economy solutions for the electronics industry.

Lexmark announced it has been selected as a partner in two new EU-funded projects to build circular economy solutions for the global marketplace. As the exclusive imaging equipment provider, Lexmark will contribute to both the Circular Economy Resource Information System (CE-RISE) project and DiCiM, a project using integrated digital solutions to improve Circular Manufacturing Systems.

Both projects are part of Horizon Europe, the EU Research and Innovation framework programme running from 2021- 2027.

The CE-RISE project involves 27 partners from 12 countries with a €7 million ($7.54 million) EU budget and will run for a period of four years. It aims to lead research into sustainable models and take them one step further by maximising the use of secondary raw materials (SRMs) and utilising IoT and AI approaches. Building on the success of the C-SERVEES project, which ended last year, Lexmark will bring its sustainability expertise to build best practice on circular models for the electronics industry.

CE-RISE will foster a dynamic ecosystem geared toward prolonging the use of materials in the economy while Lexmark will contribute to pilot studies, create prototypes, and gather information for a Digital Product Passport (DPP) which will enable the traceability of materials in the supply chain. The eventual aim will be to provide stakeholders with a better understanding of the green credentials of electronic products and educate the industry on how to preserve important raw materials throughout the reuse, repair and recycling of these items.

Golnoush Abbasi, PhD. Senior scientist at NILU (Climate and environment research institute of Norway) and CE-RISE project leader emphasised: “We are delighted to have Lexmark as an industrial partner, representing the ICT value chain in CE-RISE. Lexmark brings compelling insight regarding industry needs, challenges and perspectives and its contribution is vital as we want to ensure that CE-RISE products will facilitate the European green transition toward zero emission by 2050.”

The DiCiM project, which includes 12 consortium partners from nine countries and a €6 million ($6.46 million) EU budget, will run for the same four-year period. DiCim stands for “Digitalised Value Management for unlocking the potential of the Circular Manufacturing Systems with integrated digital solutions” and is dedicated to utilising digital tools to accelerate circular economy business models. The project will develop integrated digital solutions that make use of Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML) based Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Image Processing and Augmented Reality (AR).

As the only print manufacturer, Lexmark will assist the DiCiM project with IoT monitoring and identifying the key parameters in real time. This will include implementing an open access digital platform and demonstrating the capability of the printers for enabling tracking, tracing, and condition monitoring.

Alena Klapalová, Principal Investigator from Masaryk University, the leading coordinating university for the DiCiM project, said: “We believe that the DiCiM project could have a significant impact across Europe and the development of a digitally empowered circular economy. This future-oriented project speaks directly to the ambitions of the European Green Deal and the EU’s Right to Repair regulations, as well as the European Union’s Digital Decade.”

Maxime Furkel, Head of Government Affairs, Lexmark EMEA, and one of the project leaders of CE-RISE and DiCiM at Lexmark said: “In a world of finite resources, the circular economy will be vital in keeping businesses functioning. We are delighted to be sharing our expertise with both the CE-RISE and DiCiM projects. After completing our work with C-SERVEES, aimed at identifying new business models and creating local jobs, we are keen to build upon on our findings and continue our research into boosting cartridge and printer remanufacturing solutions while optimising the reuse of secondary raw materials (SRMs). Utilising our IoT expertise for the projects will be key to both continuing the critical work of developing circular economy solutions for the business world and will also help Lexmark further improve our own offering and approach as we build towards a sustainable future.”

Categories : World Focus

Tags : Circular economy EU Projects Lexmark Showcase Technology