Developing and Raising the Level of Zero-Waste-to-Landfill Activities
 (Ricoh Group/Global) |
Zero-Waste-to-Landfill activities are carried out at Ricoh's sites all over the world. The Ricoh Group defines Zero-Waste-to-Landfill
as a 100% resource recovery rate, or no waste used as landfill. Zero-Waste-to-Landfill was achieved at its major production sites in Japan in March 2001 and at production sites outside of Japan in March 2002. Thus, the Group achieved Zero-Waste-to-Landfill at all its major global production sites. Since then, these activities have been promoted at nonproduction sites worldwide and at companies that have newly joined the Group. At sites that have already achieved Zero-Waste-to-Landfill, efforts are being made to raise the level of Zero-Waste-to-Landfill, including controlling the volume generated and the conversion of waste into useful materials, under the concepts of sustainable environmental management.
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Concepts in Raising the Level of Zero-Waste-to-Landfill Activities
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Efforts for Reducing Packaging Waste in Transportation between Global Production Sites  (Ricoh Gotemba Plant/Japan)  (Ricoh Asia Industry (Shenzhen) Ltd./China) |
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| Transportation by returnable rack |
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The Ricoh Group is actively making efforts to reduce packaging waste, because the Ricoh Group has a global manufacturing system and packaging materials used for transportation between production sites are increasing. The parts and half-finished goods transported from Ricoh Asia Industry (Shenzhen) Ltd. (RAI) to Ricoh Gotemba Plant are placed in corrugated cardboard, which is then carried in containers. Waste materials are recycled as corrugated cardboard, but recycling does cause some environmental impact and costs, which makes it necessary to reduce resource use. In light of these, returnable racks that can be used repetitively were introduced in May 2007 for the transportation of some parts, including scanner units. At the same time as the introduction of returnable racks, efforts were also made to improve the load-carrying efficiency, which led to the simultaneous realization of reduced packaging material waste and reduced costs. As a result, CO2 emissions are reduced by about 270 tons and costs by ¥23 million on an annual basis.
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Recycling Solder Used in the Manufacturing Process for Printed Circuit Boards (Ricoh Microelectronics Co., Ltd./Japan) |
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| Waste solder recycling facility |
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Ricoh Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (RME) collects and reuses unused paste solder generated during the manufacturing process for printed circuit boards, using a waste solder recycling facility developed in-house. The use of paste solder in manufacturing printed circuit boards was under strict control in
order to maintain the quality of the solder, and paste solder exceeding the time limit had to be thrown away. The introduction of leadfree products, however, led to higher solder costs, causing a heavy cost burden. Thanks to the new technology, paste solder can be heated on the spot and separated cleanly into metal solder and solvent, which are collected and used in other processes. The original technology including the separation method and automatic control was adopted in the newly installed facility, which realizes steady treatment of solder. As a result, no more solder is disposed of, which has reduced both purchasing and disposal costs. In fiscal 2007, RME started recycling paste solder collected from other business sites of the Group (Ricoh Hatano Plant, Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd., and Ricoh Keiki Co., Ltd.) as well.
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Zero-Waste-to-Landfill Achieved at a New Group Company
(Ricoh Printing Systems, Ltd./Japan) |
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| Staff members in charge of environmental activities at Ricoh Printing Systems |
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Ricoh Printing Systems, Ltd., is a printer manufacturer that joined the Ricoh Group in October 2004. Before joining the Group, the company's target was to achieve a landfill ratio of under 1% to total waste volume. The Ricoh Group's target, however, is to raise "the resource recovery rate of waste to 100%," and it was necessary for Ricoh Printing Systems to review its conventional waste disposal methods. In fiscal 2005, the company introduced Zero-Waste-to-Landfill activities in compliance with the Ricoh standards, reviewing the types of wastes and changing disposal methods and recycling routes. Consequently, Zero-Waste-to-Landfill was achieved at all of its five sites. Specific revisions were made in 13 cases at the Katsuta, Taga, and Yamagata sites. They improved disposal methods for every type of waste, introducing the recycling of corrugated cardboard and wooden pallets and reducing the generation of toner waste by establishing new recycling facilities. These efforts resulted in a reduction in disposal costs of ¥12 million.
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Stepping up Zero-Waste-to-Landfill Activities for better environmental management (Ricoh Numazu Plant/Japan) |
When a new facility started up at the Ricoh Numazu Plant in December 2006, we anticipated that both amount of waste and waste processing costs would rise greatly, so plant staff took steps to reduce total waste with some very fundamental changes. The main types of waste produced at Numazu Plant are raw material and component packaging, waste oil, wastewater and thermal sludge, but recycling routes were already in place for all types of waste occurring at the plant, which had also achieved Zero-Waste-to-Landfill through its 5R initiatives. When more waste is produced, however, the recycling process creates greater environmental burdens and costs. Numazu Plant enhanced its efforts with a four-part approach that includes compacting waste, reducing the unit cost of processing, reviewing our separating methods to turn wastes into valuable materials, and increasing the value of valuable materials. Specifically, we changed the wastewater processing route to limit the unit cost of processing, asked our suppliers to take back waste oil and also sold some off by first separating and recovering it, and sorted waste plastics and films into finer categories to convert these wastes into valuable materials. The result was a reduction of about 300 tons of waste in FY2005-and a savings of more than ¥70 million.
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