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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Info Post
By Shirley Jones


There is an urgent need to start reducing the emission of greenhouse gases into the environment and to protect our natural resources. Many customers have recognized the role they have to play; shunning businesses associated with products or services harmful to the environment and promoting those that are environment conscious. This is also being seen in the printing industry. There are several things you can do to adopt brochure printing that is eco friendly.

Strive to utilize your resources optimally and minimize on wastage. These include raw materials such as ink, paper and water and other inputs such as electricity. Putting only the essential information on the brochure will help you save on paper requirements. Another strategy that can be used to reduce the amount of paper used is to have a design in which the brochure is folded several times.

Ink is an important input in the printing process. Most of the inks used in conventional printing are petroleum based. During the process of drying, they release what are referred to as volatile organic compounds (or VOCs). When released into the atmosphere, these compounds have a number of detrimental effects. One of them is formation of smog which reduces visibility. For ecofriendly processes, the preferred inks are the vegetable based types.

Using recycled paper is another way of conserving the environment and reduce on operational costs at the same time. Recycling can be made possible in two main ways: using post-consumer waste paper and using pre-consumer waste. Post-consumer waste paper is obtained from products which have already been used and discarded. Pre-consumer waste paper, in comparison, is the excess paper that comes from the manufacturing process.

Reduced deforestation is not the only environmental benefit of recycling paper; a few other benefits exist. For example, less water is needed to process recycled paper as compared to virgin paper. For this reason, recycled paper results in less effluent being discharged into the environment. Conservationists have always expressed concern on the use of chlorine as a bleaching agent for the recycled paper. Fortunately, newer bleaching methods which do not rely on chlorine have been devised.

Other raw materials can be recycled in the same way as the paper. Water, which is one of the most important, is perhaps the easiest to be taken through these processes. Close to 60% of water used in one cycle can be reused. Ink can also be recycled similarly.

Energy efficiency is good for the environment and the business. Work to reduce your reliance on fossil fuel as your source of energy and consider using more of renewable sources such as wind and solar. Get rid of inefficient equipment if possible and replace it with that which can give you higher output per unit of energy consumed. You will need to do regular servicing to the equipment to ensure that they remain efficient throughout.

When you decide to go green, you may have to put up with higher operational costs initially but the investments will pay you back handsomely in the long term. If the shift is too expensive for you to carry out, then the best option is to outsource. Perform a background check to ascertain that your chosen company is environmentally certified.




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