Last year at this time all I seemed to hear about from vendors were environmental concerns in relationship to their copiers. It is odd, as the economy changes, so does the focus. As a bit of a cynic, I must wonder about this change. I can say that to Kyocera’s and Xerox’s credit, they have stayed on this course (even if it isn’t coming up as much…) Some of the others we deal with haven’t mentioned this for months. It makes you wonder if the talk before was just fluff or if it was real.
Here are a few things worth considering if you do still care about the environment and are looking for a copier that is cost effective and Earth Friendly.
Kyocera uses long life parts, the drum for example, lasts 500,000 pages. Most other drums, not made from ceramic only last as long as the cartridge (average of about 20,000)… This means from a waste standpoint, Kyocera has a lot less waste. It is not uncommon for the Kyocera to produce 1/6th the total waste as their competitors. Also, if you are worried about breathing in ozone, most of their products do not produce ozone due to their ceramic drum (it charges differently…) Kyocera is cheap when it comes to prints, a bit more expensive when it comes to the equipment. Another point is when the drum is expended, it can be crushed and it is basically sand… not poison.
Xerox on the same path of being more green does an awesome job with their solid ink machines. The 8560MFP and the 8860MFP are both nice choices for the following reasons.
- Neither do tabloid sized prints so there is a smaller footprint, meaning less plastics in manufacturing.
- Both use wax rather than toner… the wax is non-toxic, so technically it can be eaten (though not recommended…)
- Both use much less power than a traditional copier.
- The Phaser 8860 is nice because prints are much cheaper than competitors. (As low as $.03 for color pages!)
We understand the economy is putting us all into positions to make tougher choices, but we’d just like to encourage you to remember the Eco concerns have not faded away and it is still important to consider our impact to the world, and not just the impact to our pocket books.
