The Print Co. operates its business in a manner that actively seeks to prevent or minimise the possibility of its actions to cause harm to the environment. Our aim is to continue to be as environmentally friendly as it is possible within the price constraints in our marketplace.

We use true processless plates, the most environmentally friendly litho plates available. This saves on the energy a typical processor might use, along with the considerable water volumes involved in processing a normal CTP plate. In addition, the waste chemistry does not have to be disposed of, and there are benefits from not having to use the energy and resources required to manufacture the processor and chemistry in the first place. Indeed, Fuji has calculated the equivalent carbon footprint of true processless plates to be over ten times lower than that of a normal processed plate (around 20g of CO2 per m2 of true processless plates plate compared to well over 250g for a normal processed plate).

Our state of art press is alcohol-free or IPA-free and Volatile alcohols used in the fount solutions are replaced with non-volatile glycols instead of isopropanol. Glycols are biodegradable and are not considered to be environmental pollutants. Another advantage of our press is its energy consumption. It uses 45% less electricity than the equivalent press produced by the leading press manufacturer.
Automation on the press allows us to make ready in minutes and compete on extremely short runs that would normally be considered to be in the digital market. Digital printing is very environmentally unfriendly; there are seven different waste streams from a toner cartridge.

 

We use vegetable-based Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) - free inks. We recycle the following:

  • Paper and cardboard waste
  • Plate metal
  • Office toner cartridges and separated office waste paper
  • Plastic waste
  • Split down our ink cartridges on-site to enable recycling, end caps sent back to ink manufacturer for re-use
  • Segregate all other waste for separate recycling
  • Broken pallets are sent off for wood chipping

 

The Print Co. management is constantly reviewing production processes to ensure the most efficient and environmentally friendly processes are being employed.