CANADIAN PRINTING INK MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION

CANADIAN PRINTING INK MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION STATEMENT ON PRINTING INK AND THE ENVIRONMENT The increased public awareness about environmental issues has led to the usage of the terms “environment friendly” and “eco-friendly”. These terms are used to imply that a good or service will inflict minimal harm on the environment. Currently there is no existing international standard for these terms, and, as a result, the International Organization for Standardization (I.S.O.) has deemed the terms too vague to be meaningful. Environment friendly labels are used around the globe to promote products, however, there are many labels and no international standard. There are generally three types of environmental labels. The first type requires the approval of a third party (examples, Germany’s Blue Angel and Canada’s Environmental Choice), the second is a self-made claim, and the last provides information to the consumer about a group of products rather than identifying a specific product. How does “environment friendly” and “eco-friendly” apply to printing inks? Vegetable oils and vegetable derived by-products such as linseed oils and rosin-modified phenolic resins have been used in the manufacture of printing inks for centuries. In the 1980’s, Canadian printing ink manufacturers actively pursued opportunities to increase the vegetable oil content of specific classes of inks. The transition to vegetable oils was achieved by substitution of the petroleum distillates found in these products. The extent of the conversion from petroleum distillate to vegetable oils is limited by both chemistry and customer applications. Many of the petroleum derived components of printing ink such as pigments and additives have no equivalent in vegetable derived products and, therefore, cannot be substituted. In addition, requests by printers for higher gloss, better rub resistance, faster setting and other production demands limit the use of vegetable derived products in ink. The best option for printers is to compare inks of equivalent runnability and end product characteristics. The ink that will minimize environmental harm through reduced VOC emission, reduced toxic emissions upon disposal, and increased non-renewable resource conservation will be the more environmentally responsible choice. Are inks with higher vegetable-based content biodegradable? Bulk, unused inks, whether vegetable-based or petroleum-based are not biodegradable and must be treated as liquid industrial waste (See CPIMA statement on Scrap Ink). The biodegradability and recyclability of ink layers on a printed product depends primarily on the characteristics of the substrate not the ink. Printing ink layers are very thin (1 to 5 μm max.) and generally only partially cover the substrate. No difference in the biodegradability of vegetable-based printed substrates and petroleum-based printed substrates has been identified. The members of the C.P.I.M.A. are very interested in providing positive support for our customers’ efforts to minimize their impact on the environment. Inks with lower VOC, higher vegetable oil content and minimal heavy metal contamination are available. Please contact your supplier to discuss which inks will meet your environmental and product quality needs. Reviewed September 2007