OREANDA-NEWS. The Circulars is an annual awards programme and initiative of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Accenture. It aims to recognise individuals and organisations from commerce and civil society across the globe that have made a notable contribution to driving circular economy principles – where growth does not depend on the use of scarce natural resources.

The awards ceremony took place on 19 January 2016 in Davos, Switzerland. Canon was presented with the accolade, voted for by the public, to recognise Canon as an organisation that shows circular economy leadership through its innovative closed loop recycling system for cartridges.

“We are delighted that our recycling programme has been acknowledged in these respected awards and that Canon’s circular approach is delivering great value and innovation,” commented David Bateson, Senior Vice President of Legal, IP and Sustainability, Canon Europe.  “In 1990, Canon became the first company to launch a global recycling programme for toner cartridges and we now operate this programme in 24 countries worldwide. This programme is just one part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability initiatives.  We are honoured to be selected by the public to receive this People’s Choice Award and also grateful to our customers for supporting the programme through their own commitment to recycling.”

In 2015, Canon celebrated the 25th anniversary of its laser toner cartridge recycling programme, designed to minimise the use of resources whilst enabling customers to achieve their high quality printing requirements. The programme, which is free for customers, has recycled more than 344,000 tonnes of cartridges globally, saving over 502,000 tonnes of CO2, since it launched.  Last year, Canon also launched a new recycling plant in Japan that has helped improve sorting capability and enabled 50% greater processing capacity.