INKETC: Green Ink Crop Is Ripe for Pickin'

There's much talk about green chemistries and sustainability, but the truth is these two terms don't always go hand-in-hand. Green chemistry is defined by the American Chemical Society as products designed to protect and enhance human health and the environment.

But according to the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, key elements to sustainability are maximizing the use of renewable or recycled source materials that can be effectively recovered and utilized in biological and/or industrial cradle-to-cradle cycles.

Like printers, ink manufacturers report increased inquiries from customers regarding the best selection for the environment. When it comes to choosing an ink, though, it can become a challenge to reconcile these competing approaches.

Compare, for example, the impact of publication gravure as well as solvent- and water-based packaging inks. Publication gravure uses toluene, definitely not a green ingredient. However, ink industry officials note that printers are able to recapture all of the toluene, condense it to liquid form and return it to the ink companies for further use, which would be a sustainable practice.

On the packaging side, one could understandably suspect that water-based inks would be the more environmentally friendly alternative. However, water-based inks also are petroleum-based and can contain significant levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Meanwhile, printers can run solvent-based inks so efficiently as to capture 100% of the solvents with a destruction efficiency of greater than 95%, thus incinerating the vast majority of VOCs. UV inks are much lower in VOCs (thus green), but they are made almost entirely with petroleum feedstock (thus not sustainable).

Ink manufacturers are working on green formulations, as can be seen at last year's Graph Expo. There has been much emphasis on developing products made from renewable resources, such as soy, linseed or Tung oil. Soy-based inks have received most of the attention, although ink makers note that linseed-based oils have better functional properties. Flint Group (K+E Novavit F918 Supreme Bio sheetfed inks and ArrowStar UV 7310), Toyo (HyPlus 100 Process Series), INX International (Ecopure HPJ soy-based sheetfed inks) and Sun Chemical highlighted their latest R&D efforts. Gans Ink is promoting the Nu-Centura low-VOC product featuring 72% bio-based content with 20% soy oil.

Ink companies exhibiting at drupa will also emphasize the environment: Sun and INX have already announced preliminary plans to focus on this area and, undoubtedly, other ink firms will be forthcoming with eco-news in the next two months.

It is certain that environmental issues will continue to play an important role in the coming years. In talking with executives at the leading ink companies, it is clear that they sincerely want to develop the environmentally friendly products to help their customers move forward in this time of change.

ONLINE: View a video from Gans, “10 Steps to a More Eco-Friendly Pressroom,” at www.gansink.com.