Sustainable Printing

In my almost 9 years in the print industry, I haven’t had too much hands-on experience with Neenah Paper.  Most of Neenah’s stock choices are primarily used on offset presses, although they are expanding their selection of digital press papers.  Since I’ve worked mainly in digital print shops that didn’t offer Neenah Paper selections, I was excited to hear about Neenah’s Do You Love Linen promotion.

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I’ve recently started to dabble in social networking with Linked In.  I’m quite behind the times right now without a Facebook or Twitter account, but you can see my Linked In profile here.

One of my LI groups is Girls Who Print, which is just a fun gathering of women from all areas of the print industry.  One of the members posted a link to an article titled Electronic vs. Printed Communication:  The Sustainability Battle, and I wanted to share it with you.

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Sometimes, in order to get real change to happen, one has to force the issue.  That’s what the Solid Waste Commission for one Iowa county is doing.

According to this article, businesses will no longer be allowed to throw out office paper. Instead, businesses using the Ottumwa/Wapello County Landfill will be recycling their paper along with their cardboard.  Cardboard was also banned from the landfill about 18 months ago.

I think this is a smart move and wish more municipalities would institute such bans.  Unfortunately, we still live in a society that, for the most part, won’t take recycling seriously if it isn’t convenient.  For some people/companies, the greatest way to motivate change to environmentally friendly practices is to enforce penalties for not doing so.  Not the ideal situation, but a great start anyway!

Photo Credit:  Flickr user alex_lee2001

Sustainable Printing has posted before on Tyvek banners being recyclable, but there is another eco-friendly alterative for large format printing.

Ultraflex has created the first biodegradable PVC banner material and named it Bioflex.  While Bioflex still has petroleum in its formula, 80% of it comes from sources other than petroleum.

What makes Bioflex different from other PVC banner materials is its biodegradability.  Landfill conditions allow microbes to begin to degrade the Bioflex PVC within a few weeks.  Depending on the thickness, the entire banner will be completely degraded within 3-5 years.

Bioflex is perfect for wide format printing such as billboards, vehicle or building wraps or large banners.  Check with your large format printer if they offer Bioflex.

For more information, read these Bioflex FAQs or view the video below.