RICOH Appoints Close The Loop For Consumables Recycling Reinforcing Company Commitment to Environmental Sustainability

Sydney, 1 May 2024 - RICOH AUSTRALIA, a leading provider of smart workplace technology, today announced that it has appointed Close The Loop, the world’s largest recycler of print consumables, as its consumables recycling partner of choice in Australia.

The appointment will further enhance Ricoh’s sustainability practices while providing customers with a more effective and seamless end-to-recycling customer experience to support waste reduction.

Close the Loop aims to be the globally preferred premier sustainability solutions company and provides best-in-class sustainability solutions.  The company designs and manages highly efficient ink and toner take-back, recovery, and reuse programs all aimed at minimising waste and working towards a circular economy.

Ricoh’s customers will benefit from Close The Loop’s focus on providing a single point of account management contact and are able to access and manage their own collections and order consumables.   

Close The Loop also trains customers in how to place orders and provides an easy-to-use online customer portal with reporting feature functionality.  Customers can also download their own certificates of destruction via the portal and these can be scheduled to be automatically sent to customers at agreed intervals.  In addition, the company equips customers with educational materials and online resources to foster awareness and understanding of sustainable recycling practices.  

Yasu Takahashi, Managing Director, Ricoh Australia, said, “Ricoh is committed to its responsibility towards a proactive reduction of impacts on the environment and strives to achieve a zero-carbon society.  Globally we work towards a sustainable society through a Three Ps Balance—Prosperity (economic), People (society), and Planet (environment). In partnering with Close the Loop for an enhanced toner recycling program, Ricoh is very excited that both organisations share a belief in a circular economy.  Together we will be offering our customers not only a strengthened, more customer centric toner recycling program but one that will benefit their sustainability goals.”

Last month, Close The Loop upgraded its Melbourne facility further enabling the company to boost capacity for transforming post-consumer soft plastics and toner waste powder into high-value recycled products such as TonerPlas^®, an asphalt-improvement agent that creates more sustainable roads.  

New machinery in the facility also enables Close The Loop to use packaging waste for its recycled plastic injection-moulding resin rFlex^®, allowing materials to go back into tertiary packaging items such as Ricoh toner bottles as well as pallets, crates and wheelie bins.

Indeed, as part of its ongoing sustainability program, Close The Loop partners with Planet Ark, Australian Council of Recycling and the Battery Stewardship Council.

Earlier this year, RICOH was recognised as one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, an annual ranking of the world’s most sustainable corporations published by Canada-based Corporate Knights.  This marks the 12th selection for Ricoh, which was selected for 10 consecutive years from 2005 to 2014, and in 2023.  Last year, the company was selected for inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World Index), one of the world's most renowned indices for ESG (environmental, social, and governance), for the fourth consecutive year.

About RICOH

Ricoh is a leading provider of integrated digital services and print and imaging solutions designed to support digital transformation of workplaces and optimize business performance.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh's global operation reaches customers in approximately 200 countries and regions, supported by cultivated knowledge, technologies, and organizational capabilities nurtured over its 85-year history. In the financial year ended March 2023, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,134 billion yen (approx. 16.0 billion USD).

It is Ricoh's mission and vision to empower individuals to find Fulfillment through Work by understanding and transforming how people work so we can unleash their potential and creativity to realize a sustainable future.

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com