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Canon will begin using recycled steel material (electric furnace steel sheets) in some printing products, including office multifunction devices (MFDs), home inkjet printers, large-format inkjet printers and commercial printing presses, that will be released in 2025. In the future, Canon will gradually increase the number of products using recycled steel.
Electric furnace steel sheets are recycled materials produced in an electric furnace from steel scrap collected from used products. Their use thereby reduces the input of new resources and increases the resource recycling rate.
Furthermore, since CO2 emissions from the production of electric furnace steel sheets are about one-fifth of those from blast furnace steel sheets (common steel materials made from iron ore), their contribution to decarbonization is attracting attention. Steel is the second most used material by weight in Canon’s printing products, following plastic. Canon has studied the characteristics of electric furnace steel sheets and optimized the processing method so that they could be used in products.
The production of electric furnace steel sheets requires steel has been thoroughly separated from other materials including plastic and copper. Currently, Canon Ecology Industry, one of Canon’s group companies, finely separates steel scrap from collected used office MFDs and sells the refined steel scrap to Tokyo Steel, an electric furnace steelmaker. The total amount of collected steel scrap provided to Tokyo Steel from April 2020 to March 2024 was more than 5,000 tons.
Canon will supply steel scrap to Tokyo Steel, and in turn use the electric furnace steel sheets produced by Tokyo Steel to develop, design, and manufacture more sustainable products thereby promoting the recycling and effective use of limited resources.
