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It’s easy being a green carton
February 13, 2008
I attended a conference on sustainability at Cal Poly two weeks back. The day-long event brought people in the printing industry together with print buyers, paper suppliers, educators and others with an interest in seeing our industry be more responsible in its consumption of raw materials, and in its production of printing.
In a conversation I had with one of the vendors, I learned something that now seems obvious, but which struck me as visionary while we were talking. The man with whom I was talking is a carton printer, a man who puts ink on paper and cardboard – on materials which go straight into the recycyling bin once the package arrives at its destination. He and I were discussing the
simple ways in which buyers of print can make a difference when it comes to paper box design and printing.
The man mentioned that most cardboard and paperbox cartons have a gap between the cutting edges of the die lines on adjacent boxes. I asked why, and he answered, “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.” He explained how there is a tiny little strip of board that is left behind when the die-cutting is done. He also explained how his company buys paper stock cut to the exact dimensions of the trim of a box project. No 28 x 40 parent sheet here. If they need 23.458 x 33.595, that’s the size the paper is cut at the mill. No built-in waste.
Typical box design puts a small gap between die-cutting lines.
Except that little sliver of waste between the cartons. I asked him if that is even significant enough to worry about. His answer was blunt. “If you’re printing twelve million cartons, then twewlve million little quarter-inch slivers of board is a truckload of waste.” Well, it might be a
small truck, but I got the point.
More conscientious design reduces or eliminates the waste between cartons. There is still bleed, but it's reduced dramatically.
Every quarter-inch counts to this fellow, and he is working with his clients to design boxes that use and waste less material. Nesting boxes tighter, and reducing or eliminating obvious (and unobvious) waste in design are his objectives. I don’t design boxes very often, but in a delgithful twist of fate, I found myself designing
two boxes in the weeks since the conference. One is for a consumer product, and I am thinking about how to trim a quarter-inch off the edge of the flaps, to reduce the bleed and tighten the nesting. I am really excited that I have been able to make a more “sustainable” carton design. I know it’s a small thing, and I am a small player trying to solve a monstrous problem. But it makes me feel better just to know about the issues of carton manufacture, printing, die-cutting and shipping.
Posted by Brian Lawler on February 13, 2008 | Comments (0)
