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Sponsored feature: CMYUK
using this material for display and décor graphics, any corporation or brand can now take comfort that their sustainability goals are being met with the same levels of print quality and durability.
Introducing Kavalan, the non-PVC banner revolution
Kavalan has set a new standard as the replacement for traditional PVC banner material. PVC has long been a standard
for banner production in our industry. It’s cheap, prints well and offers the physical strength needed for durable installation.
Yet in 2018, 340 million square metres of traditional PVC banner was printed in Europe, and horrifically much of this ended up in landfill or was incinerated where its poisonous emissions damage eco systems and endanger human health.
Revealing this shocking statistic to customers has certainly made the industry sit up and take notice. There is no longer any excuse for knowingly printing on a polluting material. Kavalan will never be as cheap as PVC, but it’s ‘cheap enough’ and representative of a new mind-set that demands accountability and traceability in the life of a product.
Education and disproving myths
Introducing Kavalan to the market has been an exercise in education and disprov- ing myths. Not only has Kavalan surprised many with the way it resembles traditional PVC in its look and feel, it can also match it for strength.
ner performance and in independent tests carried out by global welding titans FIAB and Miller Weldmaster, Kavalan triumphed with 100% ratings.
Bjorn Bora, CEO, FIAB said, “All indus- try players need to address environmental issues and to this end, we can truly recom- mend Kavalan as a unique solution.”
Rob van Dijken, EU BV Business Man- ager at Miller Weldmaster said, “The first time I laid eyes and hands on the Kavalan products, I found it hard to believe they were not PVC. I imagine it will be a big game-changer in the industry.”
GESS, Europe’s leading banner and signage installation company, put Kavalan through its own stringent tear tests, and it performed so well that the company has wholeheartedly endorsed it.
Martin Hicks, Managing Director, GESS said, “All the material samples have withstood the test loads on the usual ma- terials we work with, and with the added rope edge pocket finishing they will be fine for the large format sites we current- ly work on.”
The market misconception that a non- PVC material doesn’t cut it when it comes to real commercial outdoor environments no longer stands. Sports brands for exam- ple, have stringent sustainability targets and now they can specify Kavalan for all their outdoor/stadium banner work knowing that they are using a green product that delivers on quality and performance.
Responsible end-of-life care
Most digital wide-format printers have
never thought enough about what really happens to their material waste or a printed product at the end of its life. The assump- tion being that everything goes off for recycling.
However, the infrastructure around
the recycling process is inconsistent and unreliable, with wide variances between different geographical locations. Often materials meant for recycling ultimately end up in landfill or become incinerated. If Kavalan finds its way into landfill, it has a water-based biodegradable coating that starts to break down immediately.
Guaranteed sustainable waste-to- energy conversion processes
Kavalan has been designed for sustaina- ble waste-to-energy conversion pro- cesses. Unlike traditional PVC, it can be incinerated safely without any harmful effects to health or the environment. Any emissions are hundreds of times lower than that of traditional PVC banner and well below the minimum safety levels set by EU guidelines.
However, the problem still remains – how to ensure that end-of-life Kavalan once it’s de-installed is route-guaranteed to a clean energy conversion plant.
CMYUK is currently working with international partners to develop a scheme whereby no matter the geography, Kavalan reaches specialist waste-to-energy facilities for transformation into clean energy.
So the question is no longer, ‘Why do you use eco materials?’ but rather, ‘How can you not?’
The ability to hold a weld is key to ban-
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