Fujifilm and Brother expand remanufacturing capabilities in Europe

The facility, spanning 1,000sqm, is located at Fujifilm’s Tilburg site and is currently focused on collecting used toner cartridges from customers and remanufacturing them into new cartridges. 

The company plans to expand this operation to include the remanufacturing of spare parts for production printers and multifunction devices in the future.

Notably, Fujifilm aims to achieve virtually zero CO2 emissions from the electricity it uses at the Circular Manufacturing Centre through its on-site wind power generation facility and the group’s purchase of a separate wind power company.

Meanwhile, Brother Industries has expanded its UK manufacturing facility in Ruabon, North Wales to accommodate the remanufacturing of used ink cartridges. “This initiative marks the culmination of the Brother Group's 20-year effort to remanufacture toner cartridges and represents a significant step towards further waste reduction and the pursuit of a sustainable society,” Brother stated.

Used ink cartridges collected from customers across Europe will be remanufactured into cartridges of the same quality as new ones and redistributed. Brother, headquartered in Japan, also operates a European remanufacturing facility in Slovakia, in addition to operations in Japan and the US. The company has remanufactured over 40 million toner cartridges worldwide as of March this year.

Brother acknowledges that remanufacturing ink cartridges presents unique challenges, including the need for a more extensive inspection and cleaning process compared to toner cartridges. “To address these challenges, the company has modified the design of its cartridges to facilitate easier remanufacturing and has implemented quality control technology to track the number of times a cartridge has undergone the remanufacturing process,” said the Brother statement.