Japan's Fuji Xerox Co plans to establish a network to recycle its copiers, printers and other products used in nine Asia-Pacific economies.

The Business TImes reports that under the plan, the major copier and printer maker would build and start up a recycling plant in Thailand in September at a cost of about US$3.8 million, the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

It would be the first overseas recycling base for the company, a joint venture between Japan's Fuji Photo Film Co Ltd and Britain's Xerox Ltd, the report said. The company has been reprocessing data-processing and electronics products at home. The move comes at a time when environmental restrictions in Europe, the US and Asia are being tightened.

The Thai plant would reprocess 99.8 per cent or more of the materials used in its products discarded in South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand, the report said. Construction of the plant, which would be capable of dismantling and reprocessing 30,000 copiers and 400,000 toner cartridges a year, was due to begin this month, Nihon Keizai said.

The plant would sort the products into 63 kinds of materials such as steel, aluminum, glass and resins. Fuji Xerox would commission 10 local firms to put the materials into reusable form, the report said. Fluorescent lights, copier photo conductors and nickel cadmium batteries would be brought to Japan for recycling, it said