In line with its code of ethics, ARMOR GROUP has incorporated the circular economy principles into APS’ core business. This includes a cartridge collection service and the production of re-manufactured cartridges. The aim is to minimize the use of virgin raw materials in favor of re-used and recycled materials.

Creating the OWA brand is one of the most powerful illustrations of ARMOR GROUP’s involvement in the circular economy. The Group has marketed new
remanufactured high-quality laser cartridges since 2015. These are compatible with most leading brands of printers. But the principle doesn’t stop there. For every OWA cartridge sold, ARMOR GROUP pledges to recycle or disassemble in an environmentally-friendly way one equivalent used cartridge. All components are carefully sorted and reintroduced in the manufacturing chain as secondary raw materials. To step up this approach, ARMOR GROUP has opted to apply QUALICERT standards to its entire OWA circular economy product range (collection, sorting and recycling, remanufacturing), a world first in this field.

OWA 3D filaments: Recyclable filaments have been tailor made since 2016 using recycled materials to create the OWA Kimya product range. Reel dispensers are also designed using recycled plastics. The recycled plastic comes from OWA cartridges collected from customers using a dedicated service. In addition, the Group’s new business activities are
driving new thinking about the use of raw materials.

The Group is set on gradually reducing the intensity of its footprint concerning non-renewable raw materials. ARMOR-IIMAK, which uses a significant amount of non-renewable resources, is continuing its efforts by making constant gains in production performance from eco-design measures and its REC’PET program.

Through environmental management measures at its sites to minimize the impacts of production activities, one of ARMOR’s main goals is to reduce
waste and, if possible, recycle it into resources while ensuring any residual waste is processed efficiently and responsibly.

In pursuit of this goal, ARMOR has for the last few years introduced REC’PET programs in the company and REC’PET Partner programs for end users. This initiative provides a solution to recover and recycle rejects or PET film waste which is central to the Thermal Transfer business. These scraps and rejects which generally go to landfill or are incinerated, are highly specific plastic waste as the PET films are inked and extremely thin (approx. 10μm). This limits their ability to be recovered using conventional recycling techniques. They are collected and then converted into Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF). SRF has stable energy properties and is used as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels, such as coal or oil.