Packaging Innovation and Toner Recycling: Brother's Initiatives for the Circular Economy

A key aspect within the Brother Group's strategy is sustainability. Climate change imposes new challenges on businesses, and is accompanied by a growing sensitivity to the environment and society. In recent years, we have pushed to expand initiatives to support an eco-friendly approach in the production, marketing and after-sales service of printing devices. The goal is to maximise the recycling of materials and minimise environmental impact to achieve a 65% reduction in emissions by 2030. In its environmental commitment plan, Brother will - by 2050 - work to actively reduce CO2 emissions across the entire value chain in all of its business operations and maximise material recycling to ensure the utilisation of natural resources in an effort to minimise its environmental impact. Dominating Brother's vision is undoubtedly the Circular Economy paradigm, which in concrete terms translates into the production of solutions certified by a series of environmental labels, capable of guaranteeing the safety of products, while also optimising packaging.

Brother Industries has in fact developed a new moulded pulp packaging material, compact and light, designed to protect products while significantly reducing environmental impact. In recent years, Brother has made a strong focus on the use of recycled materials, replacing expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) with moulded paper pulp for printer cushioning. The company developed a proprietary impact simulation technology, optimising the structure of the moulded pulp and drastically reducing the number of physical prototypes and development time (up to 90% less). The new design allows the pads to be placed only in the top and bottom corners of the product, providing the same protection with a minimum amount of material. The result is packaging with a weight reduced by 33% compared to the previous version, which also reduces the size of the boxes by 7%. This means fewer resources used, greater logistical efficiency and a further reduction in transport-related CO₂ emissions.

In addition, to promote the circular economy, at Brother we have activated a free take-back service for companies and freelancers for used original toner cartridges, via an authorised courier. We know that taking real action on sustainability requires real effort and an upheaval of the status quo. For this reason, as providers of printing solutions, we want to make the process of recycling toner cartridges and printers as easy as possible for professionals and SMEs. This process becomes much easier when SMEs rent their printing technology from authorised resellers, so that recycling can be taken care of at the end of the devices' life cycle by an experienced supplier. Joining the recycling programme is very simple: users can request free take-back of Brother toner cartridges from our website. We will take care of the take-back and then recycle them, making an active contribution to environmental sustainability. Each component will be remanufactured or recycled and nothing will go to landfill.