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Each year, the European imaging supplies aftermarket comes together for its annual conference and awards ceremony. The city of Tallinn in Estonia is not the usual venue for such an event but, sometimes, you just have to make a change—and that’s where The Recycler Live 2025 took place. Eighty key industry executives from manufacturers, remanufacturers, distributors, and the dealer community journeyed to this strategically significant Northern European city to network and cut deals for the next year, leveraging a new two-day event format.
Compliance and Enforcement: Two Must Haves
Consensus is not easy to find in this industry. However, there was considerable agreement around the perennial problem of illegal compatible products in the European supplies market. The question of what to do about the disruptive flow of non-compliant new builds led to one conclusion: enforcement of existing regulatory requirements, which happens to be a topic being addressed by the European Toner and Ink Remanufacturers Association (ETIRA).
Sustainability Is Not Easy: It’s a Journey
The Recycler Live events have always attracted the attention of manufacturers (not always for positive reasons), but all that changed when HP launched its SecuReuse program last year. The program supports circularity by allowing the resetting of chips on genuine HP cartridges to maintain compatibility with HP printers and MFPs.
This year, Brother and Ricoh used the event to discuss their sustainability journeys and solutions. More interesting were the one-on-one discussions between these OEMs and the aftermarket to address common problems and build synergies in the best interests of circularity for the industry.
Keypoint’s Remanufacturing Testing Programs
Keypoint Intelligence used the event to launch two new testing programs targeted at improving the quality and consistency of remanufactured hardware and supplies. Each program involves a rigorous evaluation and “real-world” evaluation of printers, MFPs, copiers, and cartridges to ensure quality is maintained by the remanufacturers processes over time.
David Sweetnam, Director of EMEA/APAC Research & Lab Services at Keypoint Intelligence, shared that one manufacturer has already contracted into the “mystery-shopper” based evaluation of their remanufactured hardware and that discussion were advanced with multiple other OEMs and supplies remanufacturers.
“What stood out this year wasn’t just the caliber of the conversations,” notes Sweetnam, “but the willingness of the industry to confront difficult truths—whether on compliance, sustainability, or the future role of print. For reuse to truly thrive and scale, we need a consistent supply of high-quality empty cartridges. Perhaps the time has come for the industry to develop a multi-brand collection program—one that increases volume, improves quality, and brings down costs across the board. The conversations in Tallinn showed a growing willingness to think beyond traditional boundaries and work together on practical solutions.”
We also presented insights from our latest Print in your Lifestyle primary research study. This project revealed which essential printing habits are the most likely to resist the disruptive impacts of the digital transformation of documents and artificial intelligence. Ross Chapman (Keypoint Intelligence’s Business Development Director for EMEA) presented a deep dive into the research findings, sharing who is printing what and why.
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Ross Chapman of Keypoint Intelligence presents key findings
from the 2024 Print in Your Lifestyle primary research study. |
Keypoint Intelligence Opinion
In some respects, this conference was not dissimilar to many others from previous years with lots of market insights, solid networking, deals closed, awards presented, and relationships reinforced. But there was another unspoken theme, one of shared motivation to find ways to improve the industry in a more sustainable and profitable direction. This year, we saw a little less of the “us and them” mentality and a step closer to just “we.”
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