Photos: Inside Ricoh's 'Green Centre'

Ricoh's Green Centre near Wellingborough in Northampton is a 43,000 square foot facility dedicated to processing IT kit, principally copiers, and either returning them back into the field as a reconditioned unit or stripping them of all components which can be reused and then moving the remaining unit and components on for recycling.

For a 'Green Centre' it seems unusual that recycling is actually the last thing they want to do here. Only around one per cent of kit is recycled – the rest is reconditioned and reused and its final end-of-life date postponed indefinitely.

Customers are advised when kit contains reconditioned parts but many reconditioned machines are sold to trade rather than distributed back through official Ricoh channels. All machines sold to trade must be taken outside the EU to avoid conflicts with Ricoh distributors.

Photo: Will Sturgeon