Image forming apparatus that selectively recycles developer

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image bearer to bear a latent image;
• a developing device to develop the latent image with developer;
• a transfer device to transfer a developed image from the image bearer onto a recording medium;
• a developer collecting device to collect developer remaining on the image bearer;
• a waste-developer container to contain developer to be disposed,
• a switching determiner to perform:
• determination of a preferred transfer amount of developer in a target period;
• estimation of an accumulative consumption of developer in the target period;
• determination of whether to dispose or reuse collected developer collected by the developer collecting device from the image bearer;
• and
• determination of whether to perform switching between disposal and reuse of the collected developer based on comparison between the preferred transfer amount and the estimated accumulative consumption of developer;
• a switching controller to cause the developer collecting device to perform the switching between disposal and reuse according to determination made by the switching determiner;
• an accumulative waste amount estimator to estimate an accumulative waste amount meaning an amount of developer disposed in the waste-developer container in the target period;
• and
• a transfer amount estimator to estimate an accumulative transfer amount in the target period,
• wherein the switching determiner estimates the accumulative consumption of developer based on the accumulative waste amount and the accumulative transfer amount.