The recycling plant that Brother has in Slovakia, one of the leading facilities in Europe dedicated to the remanufacturing of toner, celebrates the 15th Anniversary of its inauguration. In addition, it has received the status of carbon neutralitybecoming the second Brother recycling facility to achieve this accreditation.
The factory, which was built to meet the growing toner recycling demand across Europe, it is the largest of Brother’s four recycling facilities, remanufacturing more than 2.6 million toners per year, reusing the equivalent of waste needed to fill three Olympic swimming pools each year.
«We expanded our business to Slovakia in 2007, when global toner remanufacturing was just starting. We were one of the first companies in Europe to build a recycling and remanufacturing facility. Since then, our operations have had to grow year after year to support the volume of cartridges returned by our customers and partners. To date, we have remanufactured more than 18 million cartridges in Slovakia, demonstrating our customers’ commitment to the environment, and their confidence in our vision of sustainability.explains Dave Lawrence, Director of Brother Industries Slovakia.
The Slovakian plant collects empty toner cartridges, evaluates them, replaces worn parts and manufactures reused cartridges that undergo strict controls so that they meet the same quality standard as new ones. Thus, 80% of the original material is reused. The rest is recycled and used to make other Brother products.
This anniversary also comes when the plant receives recognition of carbon neutrality. Together with the recycling factory of United Kingdom (which obtained this recognition in 2021), the Slovak plant carries out one of the only zero-waste, carbon-neutral remanufacturing processes in Europe.
“Achieving carbon neutrality for such a large operation is hugely important and something we are all incredibly proud of. We take our responsibility towards the environment very seriously, which is why we have already developed many initiatives to reduce our impact. Everything that we cannot reuse directly is recycled, contributing to a circular process in which nothing goes to landfill»adds Dave Lawrence.
“In addition, much of the energy we need to operate is generated from solar panels and from a ground heat pump that we have installed. This natural energy source has reduced our CO2 emissions by 48%. These types of innovations are what guarantee continuous improvement and the challenge of carrying out the most sustainable remanufacturing process possible”, Lawrence concludes.
