Canon Toner Cartridge Recycling Program Celebrates 20 Years

(Lake Success, NY) - Canon U.S.A., Inc., today announced that, in 2010, Canon Inc. will mark the 20th anniversary of the Canon Toner Cartridge Recycling Program, a zero-landfill program in which every component of the used all-in-one toner cartridges* that the Company collects is reused, recycled or recovered.

Canon Toner Cartridge Recycling Program: First-of-its-Kind
In 1982, Canon created the world's first personal copying machines incorporating replaceable all-in-one toner cartridges. These toner cartridges were then adapted for use in laser beam printers and rapidly gained in popularity. However, with this increase in popularity came an increase in the number of used cartridges. Canon's corporate philosophy of Kyosei – living and working for the common good – has constantly provided the company with a keen awareness of environmental issues such as a commitment to waste reduction and resource conservation.

In accordance with this commitment, Canon introduced the Toner Cartridge Recycling Program. First launched in 1990, the program has collected approximately 220,000 metric tons of used toner cartridges. The initiative, launched on a global scale by a single business group at no cost to customers, marked a watershed moment within the industry. The cartridge return program now operates in 23 countries worldwide, supported by four global recycling bases: Canon Ecology Industry Inc. in Japan; Canon Dalian Business Machines, Inc. in China; Canon Virginia, Inc. (CVI) in the U.S.; and Canon Bretagne S.A.S. in France.

Toner Cartridge Recycling in the U.S.
As part of Canon's Clean Earth Campaign and the Toner Cartridge Recycling Program, CVI opened Industrial Resource Technologies, Inc. (IRT), a toner cartridge recycling facility in Gloucester, Virginia, in 1996 to begin to reclaim all-in-one cartridges in the U.S. IRT has the distinction of being one of the few automated recycling operations for Canon worldwide and the only cartridge recycling facility within Canon Americas.

Continuing to improve and enhance its recycling capabilities in the region, CVI and IRT completed an expansion of its facilities in 2009, adding 770,000 square feet of space to accommodate both toner cartridge manufacturing and recycling. The expansion strengthens Canon's ability to utilize more recycled materials and reclaimed parts for manufacturing new toner cartridges.

Achieving 100 Percent Recycling and Energy Recovery for Zero Landfill Waste
Canon utilizes closed-loop recycling for its toner cartridges which includes the reuse of parts as well as the recycling of the toner cartridge plastic container shell to create new toner cartridges. As a result, since 2003, all four of Canon's recycling bases, located in Japan, America, Europe and Asia, have achieved a 100 percent recycling and recovery rate (i.e. generated zero landfill waste); by the end of June 2009, the company had reduced the use of new resources by approximately 140,000 metric tons and prevented 370,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions. Canon's recycling activities have earned it recognition in the form of a number of prestigious industry awards, beginning with the Grand Prize at Japan's First Global Environmental Awards in 1992.

About Canon Virginia, Inc.
Located in Newport News, Virginia, Canon Virginia, Inc. (CVI), serves as the lead manufacturing support center for Canon U.S.A. CVI uses world-renowned production systems and extensive technical and manufacturing expertise to offer manufacturing solutions, including injection mold tools, metal and plastic parts, product manufacturing and reverse manufacturing. From concept to completion, from innovation to delivery, CVI ensures the reliability of world-class quality and efficiency representative of the Canon name. For more information, please visit www.cvi.canon.com.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2008†, with global revenues of US $45 billion, is listed as number four in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies 2009 list, and is on the 2009 BusinessWeek list of "100 Best Global Brands." Canon is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all products. At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future" – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss.

About Davis Business Machines, Inc.
Davis Business Machines, Inc. (www.dbm.net) has been an innovative leader in providing strategic business solutions and services to organizations since 1963. Davis integrates and applies industry-leading expertise and innovative technology to help companies meet today's complex information lifecycle management demands and prepare them for tomorrow's challenges. Their mission is to provide total customer satisfaction by helping customers efficiently manage the document lifecycle through superior products, solutions and services. Today, Davis is among the most successful business solutions providers in the Lehigh Valley, with a satellite office in Pottstown, PA to better serve their Montgomery and Bucks County customers. Follow news, photos and video coming from Davis Business Machines by subscribing to our news feed by visiting http://www.dbm.net/articles?rss or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dbmnet.

Why Businesses Should Utilize an Electronic Document Management System

In today’s business world, the amount of paper a business manages can be endless. With each piece of paper, someone needs to file it, space must be used to store it, and on multiple occasions, someone needs to retrieve it. When you are talking about thousands and even millions of pages of paper, this can be a very time-consuming task, and therefore a very costly task. The costs mount up quickly, in the areas of wages for employees who are responsible for filing and retrieving documents, and the areas of storage space required to house the massive amounts of paper files.

It is also an on-going, never-ending task, requiring the time of countless employees. This is time that could be better used performing the tasks that they have their personal expertise in. The opportunity costs for using a paper filing system include wasted time, delayed customer response time, and wasted floor and storage space. In other words, the efficiency of a business is very much hampered by continuing to utilize a paper filing system.

The benefits of an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) are countless. With an EDMS, you will be able to take all of paper files, put them through a scanner, and them throw them away, or if your too skeptical to toss them, you can store them in some off-site storage where you will hopefully never have to look at them again. All of your files will be stored electronically, accessible almost instantly by any computer within your office at anytime. You do not have to worry about misplaced files or somebody else already having a file at their desk.

The initial cost of converting to an EDMS is usually what keeps people from doing it. This cost consists of the time and money it takes to scan all of a company’s existing files into the system. To save time, a company can pay a scanning service bureau to scan all their files for them, and this will sometimes be the cheapest method as opposed to paying an employee, who is likely less efficient, to scan the files. Whatever the method chosen, the first year cost might be heavy, but these costs should be offset within the first couple of years.

Another route that a lot of companies take is not to scan all of their backfiles into the EDMS, but to start scanning files today as they come in, and leaving all previous files as they were. This allows the company to bypass a large part of the initial costs, while still enjoying the benefits of the electronic file storage. As time goes by and the companies appreciation for the system grows, they will slowly convert their older files into electronic images, allowing them spread this cost over many months or even years.

Once a company is completely paperless and utilizing an EDMS, their efficiency is greatly increased, their response time for customer support is drastically reduced, and their overall office clutter is eliminated. These improvements convert directly to more business and higher profits.

If that’s not enough to convince you, then this will. The company is no longer at risk to having their critical business information stolen, lost, or destroyed due to some unforeseen circumstances, such as Hurricane Katrina that destroyed thousands of business’s paper records. The EDMS can backup your files offsite so nothing will ever be lost, plus its security features will prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing the documents that they shouldn’t, a very difficult task with a paper filing system.

There’s a reason why everyone else is doing it

Some people may ask why most businesses are beginning to implement an electronic document management system when hard copy documents have driven businesses for years?

These electronic systems provide searchable access to scanned information, create a disaster recovery plan and ensure government regulatory compliance. All these things enable better business decisions and smoother customer service interactions.

Many businesses are under the incorrect assumption that paper documents are somehow free. The fact is that the cost of managing paper documents may be more expensive than digital management alternatives.

The Cost of Paper Filing
Consider an average three-drawer filing cabinet. You have the cost of the actual cabinet, the cost of the folders, the cost of the paper prints and copies, and the cost of renting a space to keep the cabinet. Then you have to take in consideration the time it takes to copy, categorize and file documents in paper folders. Every time you need information you’ll have to physically search for the documents that could easily have been misfiled or misplaced.

Documents can be stolen; fires, floods or other natural disasters can wipe out your entire business.

Fortunately, there is a better way.
Electronic Document Management technologies allow you to create a secure and searchable archive of your business information. One 100 GB disk can store over 2,000,000 pages of information and replace over 100 filing cabinets. Documents can be shared over networks so even if one computer is lost, the information isn’t.

What seems to be the better option to you?