Hope for Chinese Recycling Facilities

August 18th, 2011 by Charis Michelsen

Fuji Xerox (a partnership between Japanese Fuji Photo and American Xerox) announced that its integrated recycling system located in Suzhou, China has managed a 99.8% recycling rate in fiscal year 2010, qualifying it as a so-called “zero waste” facility.

Zero waste, as defined by Fuji Xerox, means that more than 99.5% of all products collected have been sorted, disassembled, and either recycled or reused. The Suzhou facility collects over 70 categories of used materials and consumables from all over China, including copiers, scanners, and ink cartridges. It also collects materials such as plastic, iron, aluminum, glass, and copper. In just over three years of operation (the facility opened its doors in January of 2008, and evaluation was performed at the end of March 2011), Fuji Xerox Eco Manufacturing reclaimed approximately 1500 tons of resources.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China (a much shorter name in Chinese), Fuji Xerox was an exemplary model of the mechanical and electrical parts remanufacturing industry, and it was rated first out of 35 companies so evaluated.

The recycling industry was first introduced to Asia in 1995 with the first recycled parts sold in the Japanese market. Japan managed a zero waste system in August of 2008, followed closely by Thailand in 2009. As of December 2012, 9 countries in the Asia-Pacific region support local, integrated recycling system locations.

Source: Kankyo Business.

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Tags: China, Energy, fuji xerox, reuse, reuse reduce recycle, zero-waste

About the Author

Charis Michelsen spent 7 years living in Germany and Japan, studying both languages extensively, doing translation and education with companies like Bosch, Nissan, Fuji Heavy, and others. Charis has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and currently lives in Chicago, Illinois. She also believes that Janeway was the best Star Trek Captain.