Eco-friendly Printing

Written on the 26 July 2013 by Kellie Williams

Over 100 million trees are cut down each year to supply fibre for writing and printing papers in the US alone! By reducing, re-using and recycling we can all help the environment. Here are some terms that might help you choose environmentally friendly papers that you can use for printing projects and around the office:

• Virgin fibre – 100% ‘pure’ fibre from an original source
• Post-consumer content –?waste recovered from consumers and recycled
• VOCs – Volatile organic compounds (such as occur in petroleum-based printing ink)
• PCF – Processed chlorine-free
• TCF – Totally chlorine-free
• ECF – Elemental chlorine-free

It is easy these days to find and use paper with high levels of post-consumer content. Check recycling symbols to see what percentage of recycled fibre was used during manufacturing.

Also check how your local printer disposes of unused inks. Petroleum-based inks can leach toxins into the air while they dry, as well as into the soil when printed paper ends up in landfill. Soy ink is a smart, sustainable substitute, low in VOCs.

Digital distribution of documents is also a very responsible choice, which can save money too!

Our premium publication, Zoom in Business magazine, is printed on paper from responsible sources which are approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, and distributed digitally to 1,000's of readers!

http://www.fsc.org/

This article was published in Zoom in Business Magazine Issue 8