If you want to “green” your print marketing, one way to do it is to print using digital production printing. How is digital production “green”?
There are three types of digital print production:
- Dry toner (xerography)
- Liquid toner (used exclusively in the HP Indigo presses)
- Continuous inkjet (used both for light production and high-volume presses)
Because of the number of variables that impact the lifecycle of a printed product, and because of the strides being made by offset printers to green their operations, it is difficult—if not impossible—to make a categorical statement that “digital production is greener than offset.” However, there are some unequivocal factors about digital print that will please those looking to become more environmentally sensitive in their production and management of print.
1. Digital presses do not use offset plates or the way offset presses do. This means they don’t require spray powders, cleaning solvents, or the same solid waste disposal requirements of their offset counterparts.
2. Although liquid toner and inkjet presses do use “ink” that contains very mild solvent, these presses emit little or no VOCs. In fact, they are so clean that they can be run in standard office environments.
3. Because digital presses don’t emit harmful emissions, they don’t require ventilation or emissions capture required of offset presses. This reduces their overall energy consumption.
4. Digital presses can print a wide range of recycled substrates. While these presses once had the drawback of being restricted to a limited number of substrates, restricting the options for use of recycled stocks, this is no longer the case. The range of stocks certified for these presses has exploded. You may not be able to print every stock on every press, but the range is sufficient that, if your goal is effective, professional print marketing (as opposed to being inflexible about needing to have a specific stock and only this stock or trying to push the envelope with exotic stock), you should have little trouble finding something that meets your needs.
If you are looking to “green” your print marketing, this isn’t a bad place to start.
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One factor I would add to this, having looked into it for one of our clients. Although all the digital presses can run recycled papers, a key point is that ones using electroinks and inkjet inks cannot be easily deinked afterwards. So although they may use recycled paper – it is the last time the paper can be recycled to the best of my knowledge.
As far as I am aware only the only digital presses that do not cause deinking issues are toner based ones such as Xerox, Xeikon, Kodak Nexpress and Canon.
One factor I would add to this, having looked into it for one of our clients. Although all the digital presses can run recycled papers, a key point is that ones using electroinks and inkjet inks cannot be easily deinked afterwards. So although they may use recycled paper – it is the last time the paper can be recycled to the best of my knowledge.
As far as I am aware only the only digital presses that do not cause deinking issues are toner based ones such as Xerox, Xeikon, Kodak Nexpress and Canon.
Hi, David.
This might have been the case at one time, but both HP (whose presses use ElectroInk) and Kodak (Versamark high-speed inkjet) both claim vast improvements in these areas. They both claim that papers run using these inks are, in fact, recyclable. I recently wrote a detailed article on this subject and doublechecked with the manufacturers on this very issue. So while it might have been the case at one time — at least according to the press manufacturers — the situation has changed for the greener.
—Heidi Tolliver-Nigro
Hi, David.
This might have been the case at one time, but both HP (whose presses use ElectroInk) and Kodak (Versamark high-speed inkjet) both claim vast improvements in these areas. They both claim that papers run using these inks are, in fact, recyclable. I recently wrote a detailed article on this subject and doublechecked with the manufacturers on this very issue. So while it might have been the case at one time — at least according to the press manufacturers — the situation has changed for the greener.
—Heidi Tolliver-Nigro
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