Japanese Japan's Fuji Xerox Co. has developed a new digital copy machine model, the "DocuCentre 507-MD," and a digital complex machine equipped with scanning and printing functions, the "DocuCentre 507 CP-MD," which will have much less environmental impact than conventional models because they are made of 70 per cent recycled parts (by weight).

Japan for Sustainability reports that since 1995, the company has taken the initiative in reducing environmental impacts throughout the product life cycle, from planning, development and manufacturing to disposal. Recycled parts for the latest models are collected from customers who had been using previous DocuCentre-series models. As a result, Fuji Xerox claims to have succeeded in reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 75 per cent in the new models' manufacturing process, as compared to conventional models made from all new parts.

The achievement of this high reuse rate is largely due to the company's original resource-circulating production system, which has made it possible to ensure that products made of 70 per cent recycled parts are equal in quality to products made using entirely new parts. This system's key features include:
A nationwide recycling-related logistics system and a simulation programme has been set up by Fuji Xerox to predict the quantity and quality of used products being collected at designated sites across the country, in order to reserve a fixed quantity of parts for reuse.
Parts used in the company's products are designed to be reusable through several generations. This is achieved by making the assumption at the development stage that the parts will be reused.
An advanced reuse technology is used to sort out collected parts and recover them in a condition equal to that of new parts.
Furthermore, by using its original "Roll in Roll" fixing technology, the company has achieved a high energy consumption efficiency of 80Wh/h, and only 5W in sleep mode. In addition, while conventional copiers and complex machines are made of galvanized sheets containing a trace amount of hexavalent chromium, a hazardous chemical, the latest models are made of steel sheets treated so that their surface is hexavalent-chromium-free. The company has also successfully developed a closed-loop recycling technology for rubber parts, which formerly have been reused only as fuel because they are difficult to use as material for new products. All these efforts will contribute to reducing environmental impacts