Epson has just announced that they will ultimately end the production of their laser printers by the end of 2026 due to environmental concerns. Epson believes that laser printers are causing sustainability issues. Stating that inkjet printers have a greater potential to make meaningful advances regarding environmental impact.
This is mainly due to ink cartridges using less packaging, causing 90% less waste when compared to traditional laser printer consumables. This, combined with the fact that bio-degradable ink is an option, makes it much more attractive than laser printers and their toner cartridges.
Who is Epson?
Seiko Epson is a Japanese electronics company and one of the world’s largest printer manufacturers. Seiko Epson works in many different sectors within printing solutions, such as dot matrix printers, page printers, large format inkjet printers and colour image scanners, just to name a few. With Epson creating most of the printers and ink cartridges in the world, what they decide to do in their manufacturing processes has a great impact towards the environment.
Therefore, with their recent decision to end laser printer manufacturing, why have they decided to do so, and what impact does this have on the environment?
Why has Epson decided to end laser printer production?
The use of inkjet printers is more environmentally friendly than laser printers as they use less packaging and bio-degradable ink. By fully converting to inkjet printers, Epson aims to save an excess of 2,240 GWh per year; this equates to a total of 1.3 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Epson states, “As a company, we are totally committed to sustainable innovation and action, and inkjets simply use less energy and fewer consumable parts”. This is due to inkjet printers working differently than laser printers. A laser printer fuses tone onto a piece of paper with the laser using high amounts of electricity.
By Epson using their latest heat-free ink technology through mechanical energy, they’re able to fire ink onto the page using less heat and energy. This is much more efficient when compared to high heat and fusion with laser printing.
Not only that, but heatless inkjet printers produce higher quality prints with more performance. In particular, the company states that even with this improvement, inkjet printers produce up to 85% less carbon dioxide with 59% fewer replaceable components making it much more convenient for the end user.
Conclusion
For many, this decision may take a lot to accept as laser printers can bring many conveniences to businesses through their practicality and lower printing times when compared to inkjet printers. Although this may be a hard transition for some, the change to inkjet printers will bring many environmental improvements into the near future. These changes will take a few years to take place so there is still time to transition to inkjet printers.
At Texaport, we understand the importance of these advancements, and we work with our clients to put a reliable system in place to improve their business efficiency. Our team has a wide range of IT knowledge and remains acquainted with the movements in the IT industry. Find out more here.
