Printing and the Environment

Printing is not an environmentally friendly process by nature. Printing requires paper, ink or toner, chemicals and energy. Printed products often have a short life before being disposed of. New digital equipment is old or obsolete after 10 or so years. So why print? What can be done? Why print? Printed pieces can be beautiful. They can have beauty, depth and dimension and a tactile quality unachievable with a digital image. There’s heft and permanence to a book in hand. There’s a personal, often intimate quality to a card shared with another. Printed pieces can take us to a quieter, simpler time and evoke feelings and memories of our past. What can be done? Well, there’s lots! First, recycle! At Pioneer Printing we recycle as much as possible, paper, glass, metal and plastic. We give as much clean useable scrap paper as we can to schools, neighbors and customers. Second, Use recycled materials as much as possible. We carry mostly paper with at least 30% recycled material and we have a lot of paper that’s 100% recycled. We return toner cartridges to be refilled, We reuse boxes and packaging whenever possible. Most corrugated boxes get used once and then disposed of. Imagine if we just used every corrugated box twice! Third, avoid materials and processes that have more environmental alternatives. Glossy paper takes more energy and chemicals to produce than uncoated paper. Acrylic and heat set inks make VOCs and take more energy to use than vegetable based inks on uncoated papers. If you do use a coated paper don’t use UV or aqueous coating or laminating to protect the sheet, use varnish. At Pioneer we think about our materials and our process every day. Last, consider where you buy and who you buy from. Are they local? Are they committed to do as much as possible to keep the planet green? Are they good people?