Fujifilm wins Prime Minister’s Award for a quarter-century of zero waste

Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp. has won the Prime Minister’s Award, the highest honour in the FY2025 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Promotion Contributor Awards. The award recognises the company’s success in maintaining its “Zero Waste” goal for its used products in Japan for a quarter of a century.

The awards, organised by the 3R Suishinkyogikai (3R Promotion Council), celebrate individuals and organisations that have made significant contributions to creating a circular society. Fujifilm Business Innovation was lauded for its long-term commitment, which began with a 1995 recycling policy “to aim for ‘Zero Waste’ and promote the reuse of resources.” By 2000, the company had achieved its target of a 99.5% or higher recycling rate for collected products within Japan, a standard it has upheld ever since.

The company’s comprehensive resource circulation system begins at the design stage. Since 1995, its multifunction devices have been designed according to guidelines that prioritise ease of disassembly and component sorting. To process collected products, Fujifilm Business Innovation established its own disassembly and sorting technologies before creating a nationwide network of recycling partners. This network, now comprising 37 companies across 39 locations, ensures consistent and high-quality recycling across the country.

A key element of the system is the emphasis on reuse. In addition to recycling materials, the company actively reuses components with remaining operational life. Since 2010, it has operated a remanufacturing business, where used devices are disassembled, cleaned, repaired and fitted with replacement parts where necessary. These remanufactured machines are then sold as new products with new serial numbers.

Economic viability has been crucial to the system’s longevity. The company has continuously optimised its cost structure by refining its reverse logistics. An automated sorting process identifies whether a collected device is suitable for reuse or should be sent for recycling. Reusable machines are transported to production centres, while others are sent to the nearest recycling partner, shortening overall transport distances and reducing both costs and CO2 emissions.

This is the second top government award for the company this year. On October 14, Fujifilm Business Innovation also received the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award at the FY2025 Resource Circulation Technology and System Awards. That prize specifically recognised its remanufactured device business as “an outstanding initiative that contributes to the realisation of a circular economy by successfully commercialising a business that balances economic rationality with environmental contribution.”

Fujifilm Business Innovation is now expanding its circular model globally. It established a recycling facility in Suzhou, China, in 2008. In 2024, it opened a Circular Manufacturing Center in the Netherlands to serve Europe, with another planned for the Philippines in August 2026 to act as a hub for the Asia-Pacific region.