Ricoh Develops the World’s First^(*) Biomass Toner

 Sustainability is crucial to society’s survival. Ricoh believes that a company must take responsibility for all the materials used in its products. Ricoh does this while focusing on two points: minimizing the amount of resources extracted from the natural world, and finding alternatives to resources at risk of depletion. Toward this end, Ricoh is actively converting the materials it uses from non-renewable petroleum resources to reproducible biomass as well as recycling its products. Biomass plastic has already being used in some Ricoh products.

 In a recent highlight, Ricoh developed the world’s first^(*) biomass toner as a genuine manufacturer’s supply item, and released machines that utilize this toner in the Japanese market. About 80% of conventional toner is petroleum-based resin. Our new “for E toner” however, has a biomass content of 25% of the entire mass including the resin.

 The “for E toner” will help reduce environmental impact in the following two ways:

1)	Suppressing CO2 emissions from burning the toner printed on used paper. (Including toner elements separated from the paper in the paper recycling process.)
2)	Reducing the use of depletable petroleum resources

 Ricoh got an early start in using biomass toner in actual products. We will continue accumulating technologies and know-how on the biomass toner, with the goal of preserving the environment.

Please refer to Biomass Toner Technology and Development of alternative materials using biomass resins for detail.

 (*) The world’s first as a manufacturer’s genuine supply, as of today.

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