the 1260 Environmental Mission Statement:
“eMission”
A WORK IN PROGRESS

- Our eMission is to make conscientious design decisions to reduce their wear on the planet.

These acts will support our environmental goals:

• Actively educate ourselves on proper environmental practices

• Design with products that fit into the biological cycle (products that are naturally biodegradable)
or the technical cycle (products that can be easily broken down into reusable raw materials).

• Employ our eMission to our daily office practices, supporting ‘green’ product purchasing while conserving energy & resources.

 

When thinking about recycling, you may not think about what an impact printing has on the environment. Our industry can be responsible for tons of wasted resources, unneeded plastic products and trinkets. Using sustainable printing methods such as purchasing recycled paper helps to ensure that our natural resources are being used wisely. Paper products made from recycled content, often referred to as post-consumer waste, are created from used products that are broken down to form new ingredients, which can then be used to create another product. This process makes new products without cutting down trees while creating less waste and dramatically reducing the amount of waste in our landfills.

1260 printers use soy and other vegetable-based inks which are less harmful to the environment than their petroleum-based counterparts. Soy and vegetable products are used in ink for their oils, which act as the vehicle for the ink pigments. There are several types of vegetable-based printing inks, including linseed (Flax), tung (Chinawood), castor, canola, and safflower. Soy is popular because it is a very stable material that exhibits excellent “wetting” properties which enhance its ability to carry solid pigments. Most manufacturers of soy and vegetable based inks today actually “blend” ingredients, much in the way a winemaker will blend grapes, in order to take advantage of the unique characteristics of each oil.

Inks using soy or vegetable oils reduce the amount of toxins that are released into the air during the printing process, preventing additional air pollution. Soy and vegetable based inks are widely recognized as the environmentally friendly choice. But an ink’s ingredients are only part of the story when measuring its environmental impact. Ink, like any other product manufactured by humans, impacts our planet before, during, and after it’s manufactured. 

Some portion of raw materials are emitted into the atmosphere during both the manufacture and printing of ink. The heightened environmental consciousness of recent years has a resulted in a campaign to reduce VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) in inks. Soy and Vegetable-based inks have evolved to VOC levels of 2-20 percent, down from conventional commercial sheetfed inks that measure VOC levels of 25-35 percent. As with any new or modified product, there were early failures and Soy-based inks came under attack in the pressroom because drying and adhesion suffered. But gradually, high performance inks have emerged, with vastly reduced VOC’s. Printers, print buyers and environmentalists have learned that low VOC inks can be produced from a wide variety of vegetable oils, not just soy, and we adhere to our standard of using the lowest VOC rated inks available. Choosing sustainable printing items and products using recycled content will help in the conservation of our resources.

Almost as important as the manufacture and use of vegetable inks is the recycle and reuse programs implemented by the printer. Anything a printer does to steer materials from landfills is of environmental benefit.Â
Printing green means choosing low-VOC vegetable inks, using paper milled from sustainable tree farms, and working with processor-less plates to eliminate chemical waste.
It is our mission to still provide the same great service and products, but our eMission is to reduce waste, use biodegradable plastics and green solutions.