Many printing companies are planning for tomorrow while still delivering a good, environmentally conscious product today.  This entails using recycled materials from sustainable forests; using a low alcohol combination of ink and vegetable oil based ink; avoiding lamination whenever possible because this turns paper into something virtually un-recyclable; reducing the amount of various toxins and chemicals in plate production printing and turning machinery off when not in use.

A Washington, DC printer believes ‘Green’ printing begins with the cutting of trees and ends with the distribution of the printed materials (and then the material in the trash).  Each piece of the printing process generates its own carbon dioxide weight and that is what the country needs to reduce in order to help save Mother Earth.  Transportation needs add to the carbon dioxide mix and so does decomposition at the end of the printed piece of paper’s journey when it ends up in a landfill; then the numbers of greenhouse gases raise to several tons for a simple printing job that possibly began as a designer’s idea on a cocktail napkin.

One Virginia printing company is going ‘Green’ by printing on smaller packages in addition to making the packages more light weight to help save the environment.  Think of a bag of potato chips and how much air is packaged along with a product and how much printing is needed to cover the bag.  Some air is needed to cushion the deliciously good snack chips inside, however many companies take it to an extreme.

Another way to help the environment is to print smaller on the packaging.  This may mean having a company’s sales team come up with a shorter slogan or have them rewrite some of the ad copy to represent less wording.  This will not only help on the size of the package but also but down on ink use.

Also helping recycling efforts is a return to printing on paper labels instead of the thin chemically-based plastic labels some products such as salad dressing and soda bottles contain.

Going ‘Green’ is important to many printing companies, so much so that they are getting their customers involved and reducing their rates while reducing the amount of packaging, carbon dioxide weight and overall waste.