Page 32 - Prnt21 magazine Jan-Feb 2023

| Sustainable Print | Circular Economy
Print designed to be sustainable
possible fast start-up and improved chromatic stability on long runs, as well as easier cleaning. It all makes for more sustainable production.
Innovation of this sort allows
print buyers to use different printing methods with greater confidence. Buyers can trust that there are PSPs around who will deliver, including digital printers. We are not yet seeing a clear preference for any particular digital printing technology, but inkjet is starting to gain ground in some packaging applications on the basis of improved quality and speed.
As brand owners start paying more attention to how print products are designed, PSPs are well placed
to help. Technology that allows for control over run lengths, improved ink usage and recyclability all
make a positive contribution to sustainability. That’s a big positive for the Circular Economy of print.
Laurel Brunner says print is well
suited to lead in the circular economy, Thighlighting its environmental credentials.
he ideas behind the circular economy aren’t much talked about in the grass roots printing business, but
some of the principles are starting to creep into conversations.
Three main objectives underpin a circular economy: design products to eliminate waste and pollution; keep products and materials in use for as long as possible; and support the regeneration of natural systems. It might be by accident, but changes to how print media products are designed and produced are bringing our industry into closer alignment with Circular Economy principles.
Print service providers printing on paper substrates obviously contribute to recycling and regeneration. Printers produce most of their prints on paper, while efforts to improve plastics recycling continue to gain ground. Digital printers often specialise in high value short run work produced on demand and in the required quantities. This is obviously less wasteful than the disposable print created on spec in case someone might want it.
They also deliver high value print products that consumers want to keep. We treasure work such as photo albums and family posters, especially if it is customised. Packaging printers are designing packaging to minimise materials and waste for brand owners who want greater environmental sustainability for their products. And across printing methods, printers are raising the quality of their output whilst simultaneously improving production efficiency
to minimise waste.
Beyond digital printing companies are using other techniques to enhance value, such as innovative screen technologies that help optimise output quality on different substrates like kraft or uncoated papers. This takes digital colour management
a step further, because it exploits screening technologies within the colour managed workflow. It’s also an approach companies can take to get older presses to perform better. We have spoken to a number of printers using new screening methods who say that the technology has also made
NEW PRINT ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARD
Voting is now underway to turn
ISO 22067-1 (Requirements for communication of environmental aspects of printed products — Part 1: General printing) into a fully-fledged ISO standard. The document is at the Draft International Standard stage and has the support of several ISO technical committees and the people they represent.
The objective is to make
the graphics industry more environmentally accountable and sustainable, so ISO 22067-1 is the first in a series of documents. This first part provides requirements
for communicating various environmental aspects (things that might impact the environment) of products and processes in print production. The idea is to make those communications more effective and meaningful, so that commercial labelling schemes have sufficient detail to make more robust and accurate assessments. Over time this will make it easier to compare like with like and harder for companies to fudge assessments.
ISO 22067-1 will add greater detail to environmental impact measurements and assessments. This is needed because so often
environmental labels are based on sketchy data gleaned from assessors with little understanding of print
or of its sustainability. Print is often penalised because assessors are
not equipped to consider the wider picture of print’s sustainability. Factors such as print’s recyclability and resource protection can easily be overlooked. Similarly digital printing is not recognised for its ability to produce work on demand cutting waste to nil because only those documents that are required are produced. Printing on demand also does away with the need to store print or transport it to a warehouse, all of which involves emissions.
Despite predictions of its
demise print is everywhere from receipts to books, packaging, flooring and so on. To ensure a long and healthy future we must
all recognise the need for print’s environmental accountability. As the industry continues to shrink and the production base shifts to new technologies, this is even more urgent. ISO standards are only part of the picture but they are the only part of the picture which look to encourage transparency in a notoriously opaque industry.
32 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023