Ricoh 2011 Annual Report Download - page 25

ANNUAL REPORT 2011 24
Cart production line: Substantially reduced
electricity consumption
Dry washing technology: Removing residue without
using a single drop of water
By introducing our unique
cart production line system,
our manufacturing sites
require minimal electricity
consumption for their
operations and can flexibly
accommodate changes
in production volume and
customers’ needs.
Ricoh has developed an original dry washing technology, which cleans
components without using water, by blasting them with tiny sheets of
resin film. This technology is used in the recovery process for toner
cartridges and other electronic components of imaging devices.
Concept of a sustainable society: The Comet Circle™
Toward building a
sustainable society
Cart production line
The Comet Circle represents
how Ricoh aims to reduce
environmental impact across
the entire lifecycle of its
products. Ricoh is promoting
an economically sound
recycling system, which gives
a higher priority to the reuse
of products and components
that have less environmental
impact than others,
and thereby minimizes
the necessary energy
consumption and costs
associated with recovering
and recycling processes.
©1994 RICOH
Product
manufac-
turer
Parts
manufac-
turer
Materials
manufac-
turer
Shredder
company
Final
disposal
company
Thermal
energy
collection
company
Shredder dust
Metals
Fossil and mineral resources etc.
Disassembly
oil
Open loop
materials
recycling
Closed loop
materials
recycling
Reuse of products
Reuse of parts
Sorting and
disassembly
Crushing of products Landfill
Long use
Parts
recovery
center
Materials
recovery
company
Recycling
center
Materials
supplier
Product
recovery
center
Collection
center
Sales
company
User
Generation of raw materials
• Chemical recycling
• Metals recycling
Energy recovery
(Energy, CO2)
Maintenance
company
User of
recycling
materials
Oil recovery
company,
smelting
company
Using airflow to blast thin resin films onto
the object to be cleaned to remove the
residue with their impact and contact.
Removing residue
Resin film
Residue
Only residue is removed and discharged,
while the resin films are used repeatedly
through continuous circulation.
Separation and discharge of residue
Residue
collection
port
Discharge
Resin film
Residue
Nano-bubble technology: Achieving
full recycling of industrial wastewater
Enhancing the
environmental management
system across the
Ricoh Group worldwide
Working for greener logistics by
modal shifts and direct delivery
Ricoh developed the next generation
wastewater treatment technology by using its
ozone micro/nano-bubble technology, which
recycles industrial water used in production
processes. The technology allows us to
significantly reduce the amount of water
drawn from underground sources as well as
wastewater discharged from factories after
purification,
thereby further
reducing
environmental
impact.
Starting with the receipt of the
certification by the Ricoh Gotemba
Plant in 1995, all major Ricoh
production sites worldwide had
received the ISO 14001 certification
by 2000. Subsequently, in 2001,
the sales group in Japan as a whole
gained ISO 14001 certification. Sales
subsidiaries outside of Japan are
also working hard to establish the
environmental management system.
The Ricoh Group is working toward
optimal logistics operations to enhance
their efficiency and reduce environmental
impact. To that end, we are promoting
modal shifts, direct delivery to customers,
and the visualization of our logistics-related
CO2 emissions worldwide.