Sustainable Printing

I’ve been meaning to post on Sustainable Printing an article about business cards.  Seriously, it’s been on my to-do list since I started blogging, but I just never got around to it.  Thankfully, someone else wrote a post about business cards, and I’m going to give you my opinion on the sustainability factor of each type mentioned.

First, you’ll need to take a look at the original post titled 8 Ideas for Unique and Affordable Business Cards.  These are all ways to help your business card stand out, but how green are these options?  Let’s see.

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One of the resources I use for content here at Sustainable Printing is the website What They Think.com.  This site has a wealth of information and trends for the commercial printing industry, but just recently started a new blog.

A Printing Office: A Blog for Small and Medium Printers was up and rolling as of yesterday and hopes to be a meeting place for small and mid-sized printers to gather information, share discussion and learn about the challenges and demands of the ever-changing print industry.

Our hope is that this blog will become a virtual peer group where discussion is driven by topics of direct and practical interest to printers in the small to mid-sized segment. We’ll also present expert input on business and technology issues that these shops can relate to and learn from.

If you own or even work for a small or medium commercial printer, this blog will hopefully be a resource that anyone in the industry can use.

A couple of weeks ago on Sustainable Printing, I wrote about the HP Deskjet D2545 Printer.  HP is also promoting its Planet Partners recycling program for cartridges, printers and other materials to make the public aware of their commitment to the environment.

Today, I want to focus on the printer ink or laser cartridge recycling side of the program.  You can visit HP’s website to view a video on the inner workings of one of their recycling facilities.  It is great that HP is trying to push for recycling of the cartridges since every cartridge that is recycled is one less in the landfill.  However, I wonder if HP is missing an opportunity to get more use out of their cartridges before resorting to recycling.

The Cartridge World FAQs claim that most inkjet printer cartridges can be refilled 5, 6 or even 7 times before becoming unusable.  At that point, recycling becomes necessary to reuse the plastics and metals in the cartridge.  I fully support recycling printer cartridges at the end of their useful life, but I feel recycling them before that is wasteful.

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If you’ve been keeping up with Sustainable Printing, you’d remember my post a couple of weeks ago on Environmentally Friendly Binding Options.  Upon doing some research just yesterday, I found another part of the binding process that can make your projects even more eco-friendly!

You may also remember my post a while back on Sustainable Group.  This company has so many cool office supplies to help your business scream green, but I noticed a product I wasn’t familiar with before.

Not only does Sustainable Group have a newly designed website, but they also have ReBound covers for wire, comb or coil bound documents that are incredible.  Most anyone who has ever had pages bound in one of the aforementioned fashions probably had a clear plastic cover with a black (or other color) vinyl back cover.  This is a pretty standard practice, but Sustainable Group has come back with a much more green alternative.

The clear covers that SG sells are clear PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) covers that are derived from plant cellulose, not petroleum!  This makes the covers compostable and a much better option than the petroleum plastic counterpart.  The covers even read “ReBound — Compostable Film — made from plants” at the bottom to display your commitment to responsible binding.

The back covers are 100% recycled (85% PCW) chipboard and are, of course, recyclable.   Compare this to vinyl covers that cannot be recycled, and you have the making of one incredibly eco-friendly report, manual or sales presentation.

If your office has your own binding machine, you can order these covers in sets of 100, and they work with all existing wire, coil and comb binding machines.  If you take your binding to a printer or bindery, ask if they offer these covers or are willing to purchase them for you.  If the printer is serious about sustainable efforts, then they should start carrying these as soon as they hear about them!

Here at Sustainable Printing, my goal is to educate and inform my readers on smart choices they can make with their printing to reduce the effects that has on the environment.  To implement green printing practices at your home or office, I encourage using recycled papers, being responsible with choosing what to print and of course recycling bad or old prints.  Before you toss your paper in the recycling bin, take a look at the following 5 ways to get more use out of your paper.

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