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Perception - feelgood versus impact

18 Jan 2010

In a world adapting to climate change, some things are not always as they seem.

Take the raw materials and resources used, and wastes generated in the printing industry. It’s not just about recycled paper or vegetable-based inks! But it is without doubt the sum of all the parts in a complicated manufacturing process.

Just because a particular product or activity sounds ‘green’, it doesn’t mean that the benefits are truly understood by everyone involved, including manufacturers and the general public. Not that it is all bad either, but there is a lot of misinformation out there.

At the same time doing nothing about our environmental impacts is not an option. Sustainability means that we have to stay in business by being profitable in order to effect important changes in manufacturing.

As informed consumers and producers of printed material, we really need to understand the true environmental impacts of a particular activity by digging a little deeper and not endangering the environmental debate with ignorance!

Soy-based inks
Mineral solvent inks have always contained a small amount of vegetable-based oil like tung, cotton seed or linseed oil. But newer eco ink formulations have simply replaced these with soy. In offset ink eco formulations, soy makes up about 30%of the total weight, as compared to 10% with mineral solvent inks, but with a much reduced solvent content.

Renewable energy
Currently, the real sustainable benefits to industry of wind and solar power are limited in that neither generate enough base load electricity to drive large machinery. Because of this, industry’s access to alternative energies may have to come from other sources such as hydro or even nuclear.

Volatile organic compounds (VOC)
Emissions of VOCs into the atmosphere are the primary contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and poor air quality. This is never more true than in the printing industry, with solvents and chemicals including the notorious industry staple isopropyl alcohol. But the elimination of VOC emissions that result from manufacturing processes can significantly improve this situation.

Hazardous waste
The improper identification, packaging, labelling and disposal of hazardous waste can have dramatic environmental, social and economic impacts. The end result can be contamination of the land, waterways and groundwater with chemicals that are toxic, corrosive or flammable, rendering these resources unusable without expensive remediation.

Sustainable paper
Sustainable paper and associated certification schemes such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) ensure the practices employed in the harvesting and management of the forest from which the pulp is derived are environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable. They do not necessarily certify the environmental, social or economic paper making process itself nor the claims of those printers who use FSC paper and do nothing else.

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