Environmentally friendly print co-operative - Upstream

Do you really want a FSC paper?

Duncan — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:10:24 +0000

I often get asked by customers to quote for their job on Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited paper. There is a widespread perception that this is the most environmentally friendly option. That isn’t necessarily the case.

The FSC accredit three types of certified products:
FSC 100% – All the fibre is from an FSC accredited forest
FSC recycled – All the fibre is recycled from post-consumer waste.
FSC mixed sources– The fibre is a mixture from the following sources:
i) From an FSC certified forest
ii) Recycled from post-consumer waste
iii) Controlled sources, which exclude unacceptable forestry.

Of those the FSC recycled is the most environmentally friendly (see my earlier post on papers). There are, however, a number of papers available that are also 100% recycled from post-consumer waste and do not have accreditation from the FSC, they are equally environmentally friendly.

FSC 100% is made from virgin fibre and therefore not as green as a recycled stock. It should be added that FSC accredited forests have the most stringent controls of any producing virgin fibre. That means that of virgin fibre sheets FSC 100% accredited are probably better for the environment than any other virgin fibre sheets.

Finally the mixed sources sheets are a mixture of recycled fibre, virgin fibre from FSC accredited forests and other fibre from controlled sources.

Another issue with FSC is the chain of custody and the associated costs of accreditation. For your printed work to have the FSC logo printed on it, the forest needs to be accredited, the paper mill needs to be accredited, the paper merchant needs to be accredited and the printer needs to be accredited.

On one level this is reasonable. Certainly the forest and the mill need to be accredited. The cost of accreditation for the merchant and the printer is high, given all that is really being checked is that packets and pallets of paper, which are FSC accredited, don’t get mixed in with others which aren’t.

In this week’s Print Week David Dawson of Rosefox Paper is quoted as saying “I am not 100% in agreement with the chain of custody itself … If a stock has been produced by a recognised or certified manufacturer and it displays a label showing this accordingly, it should be valid as an environmentally sound stock. The fact a chain of custody needs to be evident does seem a little financially orientated.” I am inclined to agree with that.

In summary if you want to be environmentally friendly you should specify a paper that is recycled and with a high post-consumer waste content. As with so many things the content is more important than the label.

What are vegetable based inks?

Duncan — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:52:33 +0000

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.

Recycled paper

Duncan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:26:34 +0000

Recycled paper is one of the first things most people think of when you say you are an environmentally friendly printer. Rightly so.

There are three main reasons to use recycled fibre:

1. Lower resource use: Paper manufacture is very resource-intensive. It simply makes no sense to use paper only once, when it can be so easily re-used.

2. Less landfill: Recycling reduces the amount of waste paper going to landfill. As it biodegrades in landfill (anaerobic conditions), paper produces methane, which is 23 times more powerful than CO2.

3. No harm to forests: Only when using 100 percent recycled paper can you can be absolutely sure that your product has not had a detrimental effect on any forest.

Friends of the Earth estimate that one tonne of recycled paper saves approximately six mature trees and 3.3 cubic yards of rapidly diminishing landfill space.

Waste Watch estimate that for every tonne of paper recycled from post-consumer waste it saves at least 30,000 litres of water, nearly as much as two average people use in a year and 3,000 – 4,000 KWh of electricity which is enough to power an average 3 bedroom house for a year.

Paper is broadly categorised as either recycled or virgin fibre. However within recycled the fibre can either be recycled from post-consumer waste or from pre-consumer waste.

Post-consumer waste is when the product has reached the end consumer, and is then recycled.

Pre-consumer waste (sometimes known as post-industrial waste) describes printers’ waste, such as off-cuts and unused copies, which may have been over-ordered as well as mill broke, waste paper from the paper mill itself.

With virgin fibre, the most environmentally friendly option are those papers that are FSC, Forestry Stewardship Council accredited, this ensures they are from sustainable forests.

However, the most environmentally friendly option is recycled paper with the high levels of post-consumer waste.

Print it any colour you like – as long as it’s green.

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:00:24 +0000

How green is your printing?

We were first awarded the Green Mark accreditation by The London Environment Centre back in 2008. Green Mark is an environmental certification that enables businesses and other organisations to improve their environmental performance and gain recognition for doing so. The process of achieving the accreditation has seen us improve our power saving, recycling and environmental management. This, in addition to our existing good practices, ensured we passed the Green Mark certification. Southwark Council have also recognised our green credentials by awarding us their Silver Environmental Business Award.