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B3
CUHDO Ltd.
Russian Federation
office 513, floor 5, building 1, 26B, Bol. Pochtovaya ul., Moscow, 105082
Company importing compatible cartridges of trademarks Uniton Premium, Uniton Eco, Unijet, ATM, MyInk. Supplier OPC, MR, PCR, spare parts and inks Mitsubishi, Fuji (Japan), AlphaChem, Park&OPC, InkMate (Korea), Handan/HGOA, Everlight/TTI, ASC, Golden Green, GT, MyInk (China) for refilling, remanufacturing and repairing cartridges, chips Apex.
PRODUCTION: COMPANY IMPORTING COMPATIBLE CARTRIDGES, OPC, MR, PCR, SPARE PARTS AND INKS FROM LEADING MANUFACTURERS
Information from CUHDO Ltd.
06.05.2020 Remanufacturing Industry is a More
Reasonable and Safe Alternative to Contaminated NBCs
Alexey Belikov, General Director, CUHDO Ltd.(Russia)
- How vital is
the environmental safety of consumables topic today? Many people share an opinion,
that this problem is made-up by European companies as one of the instruments
in the competitive activity against cheap Chinese cartridge supplies.
Competitive
activity and marketing fog the true state of things in many fields, but in this
topic we have to face the ugly reality that we can touch and measure. Chemical
analysis of OEM and hi-quality REMAN consumables shows that these manufacturers
fulfill international and state regulations, and unfortunately the same cannot
be said of the cheap NBC suppliers. It’s reasonable to understand that
extremely low price of such products could not be reached by reducing work
force costs (as salaries in China are growing) or by IP investments economy
(because mentioned country is now leading in patent applications), so we have
to come to a conclusion unfavourable for NBCs that it is about economizing on
product quality and material safety, the latter being more attractive as it is even
less controlled than quality. One could deny that exceeding POPs and CMRs
limits ten or hundred times is dangerous for health and environment – they
could as well deny the COVID, the vaccination and the roudness of Earth.
- This year RoHS
requirements came into effect in Russia, next year there are
plans to implement REACH. New ecological regulations can dramatically restrict
supplies of cheap Chinese NBCs, that became so popular in Russia in the past years, on the Russian market. What then? Buy more expensive cartridges?
And if someone cannot afford it?
First of
all, no one prohibits traditional eco-friendly and economic way of refilling
and remanufacturing of empties; used hi-quality cartridges – usually being environmentally
safe (and they are not obligatory the used OEM-cartridges only) – can work
several cycles (with all necessary reservations). This way will help to save
jobs in the Russian remanufacturing industry during the crisis, that will be
good for the economy, not to mention that generally remanufacturing generates
more added value than box-moving. Finally, all of us remember the times when Chinese
NBCs didn’t exist at all, and remanufacturing industry was able to satisfy the
demand for the consumables. Secondly, not to be accused of competitive activity
in favour of remans, I have to admit that well organized and developed Chinese
manufacturers are capable of producing cartridges compliant with ecological
safety regulations, but they don’t supply them because of the price competition
from cheap toxic product suppliers and because of the attitude of some
customers, who are demanding price only to the detriment of environment and
safety. The price in question – 1-2 USD per piece – seems not to be that high
in comparison with economy from OEM price level (and especially in comparison
with impending fines). With growing demand for such products the volumes will
reduce this “environmental surgarge” at the end of the day.
- As analysis of
the Russian market shows, cheap environmentally unfriendly cartridges are offered
to a great extent. These are the cartridges popular among Russian consumers,
who are absolutely unfamiliar with environmental problems. Who should be responsible
for the products present on the Russian market that violate RoHS and REACH
prescriptions: producers, suppliers, customs officers?
The RoHS
and REACH directives unequivocally prescribe that it is the producer who is
obliged to inform his counterparts about the presence and amount of any
dangerous substances in the product (in milder case through MSDS, in more
severe – by alerting labelling and hazard pictograms on packaging),
subsequently this information must be passed throug the supply chain. Instead,
as deplorable experience shows, contaminated product suppliers give their
customers some questionable or inadequate safety certificates. Naturally, for
supervisory bodies it is easier to fine the local seller, or to block the goods
in customs in the best scenario. European practice witnesses that it is very
problematic to make the manufactuter responsible (not to think about a foreign
laboratory issuing doubtful certificates!). However, in some other fields penalized
resellers filed recourse lawsuits against the suppliers.
- Which are the
most pressing ecological issues that AQCMS and you expert council are
facing today? What is similar and different in Russian and European approach
towards environmental safety?
Environmental
topics came into sight recently not because of their unimportance but because
for many years no one could even imagine that some producers would so
manifestly violate existing prescriptions using as a cover questionable
certificates or even invalid eco-labelling. Now we get more information every
day: it’s not only plastic contaminated with decaBDE, but also VOCs in toner,
lead in contacts, cobalt, benzene, naphthalene… (what next? solvent in OPCs?).
That’s why our expert council is functioning in tight collaboration with
European association ETIRA and scientific community, investigating risks and
extent of such violations. One of the main purposes for the council is to
educate resellers and end-users of compatible consumables to let them correctly
and precisely formulate their demands while dealing with the suppliers. Russian
approach towards environmental safety is pretty much the same as in the EU, but
due to different government order instruments and measures against lawbreakers
in Russiacan be much more severe.
- AQCMS is now
preparing suggestions for developing the recycling industry in Russia.
How actively your expert council is taking part in these projects?
Remanufacturing
industry, already mentioned as a more reasonable and safe alternative to
contaminated NBCs, by all means needs support and development that our expert
council will help with all available resources. Reuse of cartridges without any
doubts reduces the environmental load, while single-use cartridges are disposed
to landfill. Of course, even in the field of remanufacturing there are
different levels of components quality (and ecological safety as well) –
thinking first of all about toner that can have so different price levels.
Therefore we have to keep an eye on it too.
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