What Is Eco-friendly Printing?
Green printing or Eco Friendly Printing or is the application of green resources and making a responsive decision to opt for nonpolluting and eco-friendly alternatives when it comes to printing and supplies. This can include choosing the right printer, eco-friendly inks, the paper stocks, the labels, the containers, and other sustainable printed materials.
Why eco-friendly printing?
With an increasing demand for more sustainable and cautious printing solutions, more and more companies are looking for greener substitutes and inventive strategies to minimize their environmental impact. Eco-friendly printing and sustainable supplies help protection of natural resources and wildlife.
The Relevance of Eco-Friendly Products and Sustainable Printing
Making environmentally-friendly printing decisions can encourage environmental sustainability, decrease your carbon emissions, eliminate health risks from toxic exposures, and even help sustain your business. Some eco-friendly printing alternatives can help increase the afterlife of the supplies used, which helps in reducing the costs and increasing productivity.
What are Printing Consumables?
These include things like RFID Inlays and labels . Consumables are deliberately used in high numbers and are usually for single use only.
Custom hang tags consumables have a shorter lifespan, and staying away from them provides an environmental opportunity for companies to reduce, reuse and recycle. Being aware of the business’s environmental impact also has its ruthless advantages by setting a positive example in the industry and helping build trust and conviction with your customers.
How to Make Environmentally-Friendly Printing Decisions
Making decisions that cause less harm to the environment includes lesser production of waste and decreased production of toxic chemicals as this can hurt our surroundings. Amount of waste produced can be reduced by recycling of products, choosing compostable ink cartridges to help save landfill space, and many more.
Materials that include chemicals like Bisphenol A (BPA) and Bisphenol S (BPS) can be evaded when selecting the correct supplies. These components can be avoided in a variety of ways such as choosing Post-Consumer Recycled Content and recycle-friendly supplies.
Choosing Materials: What are the Five objectives for Environmentally Sustainable Supplies?
Recycled Content:
Select print supplies that are made using post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials
Packaging Reduction:
Remove items like shrink wrap or bubble wrap
Recyclable, Compostable, & Biodegradable:
Use materials that are made of amylum (potato starch based) and other bio-based synthetics. Paper-based RFID inlays and labels are also recommended.
Eliminating Hazardous Materials:
Choose BPA-free and phenol-free print supplies
Reduced Product Volume:
Choose linerless labels and PET liners labels
What are Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Content Materials?
Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) materials are made up of previously used and recycled materials such as paper and plastic. These materials can be found in your manufacturing process from the leftover scraps that were cut during the printing process which are not for selling purposes. Using PCR Content reduces the use of virgin material thus contributing to saving on natural resources and energy.
Linerless labels are also employed in printing labels as they help in reducing product volume and packaging.
All these environmental-friendly printing supplies never give up on print qualities.
Are There Eco-friendly Printers?
Selecting printers that are suitable to linerless labels can help minimize waste, which reduces negative impacts on the environment. Even if these printers need a beforehand investment, the investment can have positive effects on your business and the environment by using eco friendly business cards.
This is because linerless labels have environmental and safety advantages as compared to labels with liners. Linerless labels are free from release coating, allowing the label to peel away and separate from the adhesive.
What Hazardous Printing Materials Should You Avoid?
As mentioned earlier in this blog, materials that include BPA/BPS and phenol must be avoided when deciding on what bestows/supplies your business should use. BPA (Bisphenol A) and BPS (Bisphenol S) are compounds that are carbon-based and are present in many materials such as thermal printing papers.
When these chemicals are discarded, they can greatly impact the aquatic ecosystem.
These chemicals can cause disturbances in the immune and nervous systems of humans and can increase the risk of carcinomas. Plastic bottles and containers, liners in metal food cans, food, toys, and cosmetics are materials which carry substances that are endocrine disruptors in them.