Most people know something about recycled paper, they have a notion of what it is. When it comes to inks, another key factor in environmentally friendly printing, most people don’t understand what the environmental issues are. Hopefully this post will give you some pointers.
Conventional printing inks are petroleum-based and used with alcohol-based solvents. As alcohol and petroleum evaporate, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are emitted. VOCs cause environmental pollution and are a health hazard to pressroom workers, creating ozone pollution or photochemical smog.
Vegetable-based inks have dramatically lower rates of VOC emissions. Petroleum inks emit 25 to 40% VOCs as they dry, while rates for vegetable-based inks are as low as 2 to 4%. Vegetable oils used in printing inks are essentially non-hazardous.
Petroleum inks contain products refined from crude oil, which is a finite resource. Energy requirements for extraction, refining and treatment are high, adding to environmental destruction. In contrast vegetable oils are derived from renewable resources. Vegetable based inks also benefit the environment due to greater ease of removal from waste paper during de-inking for recycling.
Upstream uses vegetable-based inks for all their litho-printing. If your current printer doesn’t or doesn’t know why don’t you drop us an email or give us a call.
