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Konica Minolta Reports on Recycled Plastic Development with NEC

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On May 16th, Konica Minolta of Japan reported that it’s been actively working to use recycled plastics in various products, and has started supplying recycled plastics derived from used polycarbonate (PC) water bottles through a joint development with NEC Platforms. The recycled plastic is being used for the exterior parts of an Aterm home Wi-Fi router manufactured by NEC Platforms. Konica Minolta also said it’s using the recycled plastic in its office copier/MFPs.

Initiative to Use Limited Resources Effectively

The company said it’s been working on using limited resources effectively, and aims to reduce the amount of the earth’s native resources used by 90 percent or more by 2050 from its 2019 level.

It says it will do this by not only reducing the amount of resources used in products, but also by switching to recyclable resources, such as recycled materials. 

Recycled Plastic for MFPs

As one of its initiatives, Konica Minolta is actively developing high-functionality recycling technology to use post-consumer recycled plastics for MFP parts, which require a high degree of functionality.

The company is also accelerating collaboration with many more partner companies in order to promote use of resource recycling.

For MFPs launched in fiscal-year 2019, the percentage of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic was raised to about 70 percent in exterior materials, and to 95 percent or higher for recycled ABS resin in inner casing materials by refining material and processing technologies. As a result, recycled plastics now account for about 35 percent of the total resin content by weight in the MFP main body.

Konica Minolta also recycles milk containers made from polyethylene and turns them into toner bottles for MFPs. It’s developed washing technology that removes the smell of milk, and tiny cells that would degrade quality, and has established a mass production system in Mexico and Malaysia. The company has succeeded in raising the percentage of post-consumer recycled (PCR) in the raw material used for its toner containers to 40 percent, and has attained 100 percent for some products.

Joint Development of Aterm Router

Recycled PC plastic derived from used water bottles is used for about 40 percent of the exterior plastics of the Aterm WX5400T6, a new home Wi-Fi router manufactured by NEC Platforms.

Given that the exterior parts of routers require flame resistance and strength, Konica Minolta and NEC Platforms developed a high-functionality recycling material with these properties added and used it for the product.

Use of Recycled Plastics for Konica Minolta Products

To recycle used PET bottles and PC water bottles as exterior materials for MFPs and recycle ABS resins recovered from used game machines as inner casing materials, Konica Minolta has been developing technologies for improving recycled plastic’s strength, flame resistance, and molding usability.

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