We Love Both Printing, and the Planet!
It’s no secret that we care about sustainability here at New England Duplicator. When it comes down to it, the concept of sustainability serves as the primary motivator behind all that we do. In terms of the planet’s wellbeing, our appreciation for where we live in New Hampshire and the time we spend outdoors drives our commitment to environmental sustainability. Here are a few practices we use in our digital printing to support this commitment.
- Recycling & Energy Efficiency: Thankfully, it’s becoming harder and harder to find people, offices, and business who don’t recycle to some extent. Even though recycling is commonplace and relatively easy, it is still important because of the hugely negative impact that waste has on the environment. Harmful chemicals are released from the trash found in landfills, so the less that ends up there, the better. Therefore, we think it’s important to recycle everything that we can. We also aim to be as energy efficient as possible and are very conscious of our human greenhouse gas emissions in general.
- Post-Consumer Paper: We like to “close the recycling loop” so to speak by using paper that has been made using previously recycled materials. It’s nice to think that when we toss old paper into our recycling bins, it might come back to us someday in the form of a crisp, new sheet! We also like that post-consumer paper helps eliminate the need for harvesting new, virgin materials. Plus, the post-consumer paper industry creates a demand in the paper recycling industry, and we like that, too!
- Vegetable-Based Inks: So, the deal with making ink is that you need a liquid base to add pigment and bonding agents to. Petroleum-based inks, which are quite common, are pretty terrible for the environment. Petroleum is made from crude oil, which is a non-renewable resource. Plus, using these inks to print releases Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into the air, affecting its quality. Not to mention that harsh solvent is needed to clean printers that have used petroleum-based inks, resulting in more VOCs. Petroleum-based inks are even problematic during the recycling processes because they are difficult to remove from paper and doing so creates toxic waste. This is why we use vegetable-based inks that are alternatively derived from renewable resources. Also, there are no VOCs released during the use or cleanup of vegetable-based inks and no toxic waste is produced while recycling items that have been printed on with these inks.
There is a misconception that the print industry does not care about the environment, but this is just not the case. Though this is not true for all companies, sustainability is a top priority for us. You won’t have any regrets working with NEDUPE because we care about both our customers and the health of the world we live in with them.
