Last week we installed a new Kyocera TASKalfa MZ3501ci for a local environmental firm, a client we have worked with for years. This week I stopped by to make sure the team was happy with it, and they are. Everything is running well.

When the work you do all day is about the environment, the printer in the corner is not exempt. This team wanted a printer that fit the same goals they hold their own work to, and Kyocera was an easy recommendation. Here is why, starting with what came out of the box.

What came out of the box

Unpacking a copier usually leaves a pile of foam blocks and plastic bags for the bin. This one did not. There was almost no styrofoam or plastic at all. The inside of the box is folded cardboard, shaped almost like origami, to hold and protect the components, and nearly all of it goes straight into the recycling.

That is not an accident. Kyocera has spent about twenty years replacing plastic foam in its packaging with corrugated cardboard and moulded pulp made from recycled paper. In 2024 its colour printer packaging won a WorldStar packaging award, and in Kyocera’s own drop tests the new design cut damage on impact by up to 61 percent. So the greener box also protects the printer better on the way to your office.

Award winning packaging

Kyocera’s colour printer packaging won a 2024 WorldStar award from the World Packaging Organisation, and the year before it took the Logistics Award at the 2023 Japan Packaging Contest. Both recognised replacing plastic foam with recycled paper cushioning that protects the printer better. Read Kyocera’s announcement.

The empty toner gets a second job

This is my favourite detail and most people never hear about it. On this printer, when the black toner cartridge runs empty it does not go straight in the bin. It goes back into the printer as the waste toner container and gets a second use before it is recycled.

For the office that means one less part to buy, one less thing to ship, and one less piece of plastic heading out the door.

Built to last, which is the greenest thing a printer can do

The most environmentally friendly printer is the one you do not have to replace, and the parts inside it that you do not have to throw away. Kyocera built its reputation on that idea. Back in 1992 it introduced its ECOSYS design around a long life ceramic drum rated for 300,000 pages, at a time when a typical drum was a throwaway part. Later versions pushed drum life past a million pages.

Our Kyocera product line is known for the overall robustness, large toner cartridges and long life components. It isn’t to say that a Kyocera will never need service, it is simply that fewer parts wear out and fewer parts end up in a landfill along the way.

A free recycling program, here in Canada

When a Kyocera toner container is finished for good, it does not have to go in the garbage. Kyocera Canada runs the ECO footPRINT toner recycling program at no cost. You fill a box with used Kyocera toner containers, put on a prepaid Canada Post label, and send it off. There are no shipping or recycling charges.

Kyocera Canada reports the program has kept 54 tonnes of print supplies out of landfill since 2024, and the material comes back as things like park benches, pens and asphalt.

Lower power, too

The MZ3501ci carries an EPEAT Gold rating, and Kyocera publishes its typical electricity use at under half a kilowatt hour a week. For a full size colour printer sitting in a busy office, that is very modest.

Where we come in

Our part is keeping the printer up and running, and that includes the supplies. With Toner AutoPilot, the printer connects with our warehouse and orders the supplies it needs on its own, so toner arrives before you run out and nobody on the team has to watch levels or place an order. No emergency trips to the store, and no extra cartridges bought just in case.

Kyocera is not the only brand with a good environmental story. Xerox and Epson each have real strengths here too, and we will write about those as well. We carry all three, so our advice is about what fits your office, not about which brand we happen to sell. For this team, Kyocera was the right fit, and I am glad they are happy with it.

If you are running a Kyocera today and have never used the recycling program, give us a call and we will get you pointed in the right direction.

Does your office have a plan for its empty toner cartridges, or do they end up in the garbage?

Adam Smith, Uptown Business Machines, South Surrey, BC