Global technology company Epson has announced the end of the sale of laser printers worldwide, citing the technology’s limited ability to make meaningful sustainability advances.
The firm has now committed fully to inkjet printing.
"Climate change continues to be the world’s most urgent challenge, and the demand for products and services that use less resources and work more efficiently is rising," the company notes.
Epson’s regional head for East and West Africa, Mukesh Bector, says the inkjet has a greater potential to make meaningful advances in sustainability.
“This is due to the way the different technologies work, with laser requiring heat to fuse toner to a page where inkjet is a cold technology needing less energy to operate, '' Bector said.
He further noted that as organisations continue to reinvent themselves, anticipating and fulfilling unmet social and environmental needs has become a collective priority.
Epson EMEA’s senior vice president Rob Clark, said that the decision to leave the laser market has been inevitable.
He says that as a company, they are committed to sustainable innovation and action, and reiterates that laser printers do not fit within that as they consume more energy than business inkjets and use more consumable parts.
The business inkjet market is forecast to grow; to the detriment of laser.
IDC research also suggests that 88 per cent of hardware decision makers now consider energy consumption and waste (87 per cent) to be important when selecting new printing devices.
“We have responded by implementing changes to improve the value and sustainability of our printers, while reducing the impact of our products by about 50 per cent across their life cycle while extending their service life,” Bector said.
