Since
1936
Company History
Driving digitization
1936 - 1969
1970 - 1984
1985 - 1999
2000 - 2009
2010 - Present
Mar. 1995
Receives a commendation from the Minister of International
Trade and Industry for environmental activities
In the early 1990s, Ricoh began to promote sustainable environmental management on a full scale, implementing a variety of activities. One of the key initiatives was the introduction of a recyclable product design. For copy machines, around 20% of the weight of an entire unit is composed of plastic parts, which previously did not undergo disassembly and sorting for reuse since used units were wholly destroyed and disposed of. In 1993, in order to reduce this waste by improving the parts recycling rate, we formulated a recyclable design policy and product assessment system. Our first recyclable design copier was released in 1994. These efforts won public recognition, including the highest prize from the Minister of International Trade and Industry for environmental activities for product assessment and recyclable design in the recycling project award hosted by the Clean Japan
Center in 1995. The recyclable design initiative took root in Ricoh as a continual driver of its sustainable environmental management.
Photocopier designed for easier disassembly and component sorting
Spirio 2700, recyclable design model that has adopted a number of measures to improve efficiency in the recycling process, such as a reduced number of screws, unified plastic materials, and compatible decal labels developed to eliminate the need for removal
