The increasing environmental crisis is the most important price we have to pay for the rapid economic growth. The more products are produced, the more items end up in the landfill, some of them not having reached their full potential. The same happens with lighting. The move to LED has undoubtedly contributed to better energy solutions, however there is little or no provision to replace the light engine or the driver once the light reaches the end of its life. Most LED luminaires have a total lifetime of about 5 to 10 years. What happens next? The luminaire is being disposed of with the best options being recycling them to raw materials. The old mentality is rather linear: take-make-use-shred or landfill.
Ricoman embraces a new, more sustainable circular mentality which moves away from the single use perspective. TM66 describes it as take-make-use-reuse-remake-recycle. The document highlights the necessity that lighting products should be designed with the intention of being repairable and renewable. At Ricoman, we see it as our major responsibility to encourage people rather than dispose their old fittings, bring them to us to see how we can remanufacture and reuse them.