Canon Inc. (www.Canon-CNA.com) announced today that the company will begin using recycled steel material (electric furnace steel sheets) in some printing products, including office multifunction devices (MFDs), home inkjet printers, large-format inkjet printers and commercial printing presses, that will be released in 2025. Going forward, Canon will gradually increase the number of products utilizing recycled steel.

Electric furnace steel sheets are recycled materials produced in an electric furnace from steel scrap that has been collected from used products. Its use thereby reduces the input of new resources and increases the resource recycling rate. 

Furthermore, since CO2 emissions from the production of electric furnace steel sheets are about one-fifth of those from blast furnace steel sheets—common steel materials made from iron ore— their contribution to decarbonization is attracting attention. Steel is the second most used material by weight in Canon's printing products, following plastic. Canon has studied the characteristics of electric furnace steel sheets and optimized the processing method so that they could be used in products. 

The production of electric furnace steel sheets requires steel has been thoroughly separated from other materials including plastic and copper. Currently, Canon Ecology Industry Co., Ltd., one of Canon’s group companies, finely separates steel scrap from collected used office MFDs and sells the refined steel scrap to Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Tokyo Steel), an electric furnace steelmaker. The total amount of collected steel scrap provided to Tokyo Steel from April 2020 to March 2024 was more than 5,000 tons. 

Canon will supply steel scrap to Tokyo Steel, and in turn use the electric furnace steel sheets produced by Tokyo Steel to develop, design, and manufacture more sustainable products thereby promoting the recycling and effective use of limited resources. 

Resource Recycling Targets of Canon’s Digital Printing Business 

The resource recycling rate is a numerical figure indicating what proportion of the sales volume by weight of Canon’s Printing Business utilizes recycled materials or components. Canon has set targets of 20% for 2025 and 50% for 2030, after recording a value of around 16% in fiscal 2022. 

Pursuing those targets, its globally located recycling operation sites are working to improve the sorting accuracy of recycled resources (ferrous, non-ferrous, plastic, etc.), improve the reuse rate of parts in recycled office multifunction devices, and increase the type and production volume of internally recycled materials. As a result of these activities to improve reuse and recycling, the resource recycling rate in 2023 improved to approximately 17%. 

Initiatives aimed at net zero CO2 emissions 

Since 1988, Canon has adopted the corporate philosophy of Kyosei and based on this philosophy has been at the forefront of initiatives to protect the environment to build harmonious relationships with the Earth and the natural environment. Since 2008, the company has been working to achieve an annual average improvement of 3% in lifecycle CO2 emissions per product. As a result, since 2008 it has achieved an average annual rate of 3.95% (2008-2023) and a cumulative improvement of 44.4%. Canon will continue working to cut its CO2 emissions across product lifecycles and aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 through various activities.