Case study - Reduction of Waste

Epson Engineering (Shenzhen) Ltd., a printer production site in China, previously treated all waste ink from its printing inspection processes for printheads as industrial waste. The amount of waste and the high cost of treating it had become a challenge. The factory undertook to reduce waste ink by implementing a combined waste ink concentration system and microbial processor, a solution that was already in use in an Indonesian factory. As a result, about half the waste was restored to quality good enough it could be sent to the sewer and the other half could be recycled as concentrated liquid and sludge. That reduced waste ink by 481 tons per year and lowered yearly processing costs by about ¥30 million.
In addition, waste ink remaining after printing inspection is collected in a tank and gets a quality check (for foreign matter, viscosity, etc.), sent through filters, and reused.

Epson has established an internal paper resource cycle that uses paper used inside the company as a raw material. For example, we use our dry fiber technology to turn used paper into a raw material for functional recycled parts.

PT. Indonesia Epson Industry (IEI) is our largest printer manufacturing site. Some 12% of the waste created at IEI is paper used in printing inspection processes for printers. We have introduced dry fiber technology to take this used paper and reuse it as raw material for porous pads in printers. The result is a roughly 25% reduction in used paper waste (FY2016 results).

Porous pads, which absorb liquid like a sponge, are included in the maintenance boxes of business inkjet printers and large format printers to boost printer performance. Epson will continue to bring out the potential of paper resources as we develop and take advantage of new high-function parts that enhance product performance.