PAPER WASTE

Print production inevitably produces paper waste from print setup and trimming. At CYD Printing, all production waste paper gets recycled.

We use dedicated recycling services to ensure our waste is taken off-site and processed in a earth-friendly fashion, keeping our conscience happy and mostly importantly, the trees happy.e most significant change in the company, however, is computer technology. Computer technology has revolutionised the printing industry over the past two decades, and Craig-y-Don Printing Works has always kept up to date with the very latest this technology has to offer, leading to significantly faster production times (and of course greatly improved graphic design capabilities).

RECYCLED PAPER

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that recycled paper is better for the environment. We promote printing on recycled paper and offer various flavours, including 50% recycled, 75% recycled or 100% recycled, all of which are FSC certified.

The cost of recycled papers has fallen in recent years due to the increased uptake in use and number of variants now available. The quality is excellent and the production and use of recycled paper is more eco friendly than using virgin paper.

GREEN MACHINES

Our latest purchase is a state-of-the-art, plate-producing, mean, green machine.

Lithographic printing involves lasering an image onto aluminium plates which are then run through a bath of chemicals which then 'expose' the image. We have now eradicated the tail-end machinery which involves these harmful chemicals and replaced it with the latest technology, which no longer requires the use of a developing and finishing solution.

We are so proud of this as we are now that little bit closer to being completely green.

VEGETABLE-BASED INKS

Most people know something about recycled paper, they have a notion of what it is. When it comes to inks, another key factor in environmentally friendly printing, most people don't understand what the environmental issues are. Hopefully this post will give you some pointers.

Conventional printing inks are petroleum-based and used with alcohol-based solvents. As alcohol and petroleum evaporate, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are emitted. VOCs cause environmental pollution and are a health hazard to pressroom workers, creating ozone pollution or photochemical smog.

Vegetable-based inks have dramatically lower rates of VOC emissions. Petroleum inks emit 25 to 40% VOCs as they dry, while rates for vegetable-based inks are as low as 2 to 4%. Vegetable oils used in printing inks are essentially non-hazardous.

Petroleum inks contain products refined from crude oil, which is a finite resource. Energy requirements for extraction, refining and treatment are high, adding to environmental destruction. In contrast vegetable oils are derived from renewable resources. Vegetable based inks also benefit the environment due to greater ease of removal from waste paper during de-inking for recycling.

We use vegetable-based inks for all our litho-printing and will continue to indefinitely. We have now also transitioned to using environmentally-friendly washes to clean these inks after use.

GREEN I.T.

Most businesses tend to make their computers last as long as possible - we're no exception. This means less computer waste. However, we have also recycled all of our CRT monitors and replaced them all with energy efficient LCD monitors which use less KW/h than standard monitors.