There was a time when laser printers were a luxury. High prices pushed them out of the budgets of most homes and small businesses decades ago, but they eventually became more affordable. But now printer supplier Epson is turning its back on the technology in favor of inkjet alternatives and self-earned sustainability credentials.
As noted by The Register on Monday, Epson announced last week that it will stop selling and distributing laser printers by 2026, impacting consumers and business users alike. The Seiko-owned company proudly stated that the move is being done in the name of “sustainability,” but the company still has a long way to go on that front.
Laser printers and sustainability
Epson’s announcement said the decision to fully focus on inkjet printers rather than laser printers is across the planet. And this is largely based on how laser printers work compared to inkjet. Laser printers rely on a laser, drum, toner and heat to print an image. Inkjet printers, meanwhile, use nozzles to deposit ink.
“While laser printers work by heating and fusing toner onto a page, Epson’s heatless inkjet technology uses less electricity by using mechanical energy to fire ink onto the page,” said Koichi Kubota, Epson’s sales and marketing manager. The register.
In a 2021 blog post, Epson said that for comparison, one of its business inkjet printers used “up to 85 percent less power” and created “85 percent less” carbon dioxide than one of its laser printers when printing 20 pages. However, without specific printer models and other details, we can’t be sure this is an apples to apples comparison. Also, the differences between inkjet and laser printers from other brands are likely to differ.
Epson also said its inkjet printers have fewer parts that may need to be replaced than laser printers. Replacing parts for inkjet printers is primarily about ink and waste ink boxes (dealing with clogged nozzles is also a consideration), while laser printers may eventually need a new toner, drum, developers, fusers, and other components. According to a 2019 Epson blog post spotted by The Register, Epson’s inkjet printers have “up to 59 percent fewer replacement parts compared to laser printers”.
Because inkjet printers have fewer parts that may need to be replaced, they require less downtime and less maintenance than their laser counterparts, according to the Epson press release.
The bigger problem
Epson’s recent announcement touts a “commitment to sustainability”, as well as Epson’s planned investment of 100 billion yen (approximately $722.2 million) in “sustainable innovation”, while also plugging in the latest printers, of course. But this company’s strategic shift doesn’t feel like a big green move if Epson’s PR reps would have you believe.
We don’t need to tell you about the inherent environmental issues surrounding home and business printing. An oft-cited 2012 study reported that 375 million ink and toner cartridges end up in U.S. landfills each year, which doesn’t even factor in paper and energy use.
But people and businesses need to print things, and printers and their employees need to keep those businesses alive. So we can’t blame Epson for looking for a way to make its printing business look greener. But we regret that it continues to ignore a major environmental issue with its business that it could easily address.
As we reported in August, Epson bricked printers over seemingly oversaturated ink pads, even if the printer would otherwise physically work. Epson does this, it says, because ink can leak through the printer. But designing products that no longer function, also known as planned obsolescence, is a big no-no for green technology. We shudder to think of the number of functioning Epson printers thrown in the bin by less tech-savvy users who didn’t know the device was still usable.
Epson focuses on inkjet printers moving forward.
This throwaway mentality is disturbingly common in the printer industry. For example, in 2020, HP bricked ink cartridges outside of the Instant Ink subscription program and also used DRM to prevent non-HP ink cartridges from working in HP printers.
User frustration
Despite concerns about the environment and consumer choice, Epson continues to build printers that can do what the user demands. And that also results in frustrating user experiences, where printers abruptly stop working for no reason at all (and it always seems to happen a time you need to print something). Printer companies have no history of smoothly implementing these behind-the-scenes processes. Earlier this year, for example, Canon accidentally broke its ink cartridges while trying to prevent the use of non-Canon ink in its products.
Since this summer, Epson has updated its support page to make it easier for users to reset their printers to keep them working and to highlight the recycling program.
But despite this month’s repeated commitment to the environment, it didn’t resolve the aforementioned concerns at all. As countless video tutorials have shown, repairs such as replacing ink pads can be performed by tech-savvy individuals, but it’s nearly impossible to find Epson repair manuals, parts, or tools for Epson printers. For example, the company recommends having one of its partners replace ink pads, avoiding DIY stores and local repair shops.
