Green Printing – Saving the Planet

It is an interesting fact that printing, which is regularly used and is essential for all possible industries across the world in some form or the other, contributes much towards the growing threat against mankind and their only home in the whole universe, planet Earth. It is also a surprising fact that paper and printing industry ranks fourth amongst manufacturers in the amount of energy consumed. Paper productions, electricity used for factory operation as well as the actual printing process demands a lot of fossil fuel. These make printers a major consumer of natural resources. If the amount of natural resource consumption is not checked the world will soon be devoid of all its resources.

Moreover, like most production units, printing houses produce large amounts of harmful wastes. VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds are produced everyday in large quantities by these printing houses. The main causes of production of these harmful volatile organic compounds are petroleum based inks, varnishes, adhesives and laminates which are some essentials of printing houses. Bulk printing generally requires a lot of these resources and eventually causes the production of large quantities of VOCs. When released into the environment, these VOCs can effectively damage soil and groundwater. The VOC vapors cause air pollution when released into the environment. These in turn contributes much towards global warming and also cause a lot of health issues to human beings. One of the most common health issues it can cause is Asthma, other than several respiratory problems.

In our childhood days, we have often come across comic book heroes like Superman, who had come from another planet, and with his super powers went to great extent to save our planet and make it safer and better for us to live in. Unfortunately today, when our world is facing the great natural threats, we do not have a super hero to come straight out of the comic book and help us save the world. So it all lies in our own hands now. Every single individual today need to do something right in order to save the world from the impending tragedy. Each one of us will have to take up some responsibilities to understand the problem, create awareness and stop the menace. One small step towards this big leap would be to minimize the VOC threats and natural resource consumption and we can start by changing the way things work in the printing houses.

Of course we cannot stop using printed materials as they are still the best methods of communication, even in today’s electronic age. But we can surely use green printing. No, green printing do not mean printing with green ink. It signifies a safer technical method of printing that reduces the risk of bio hazards caused due to the orthodox printing techniques. Green printing uses recyclable raw materials in order to conserve energy rather than increasing the consumption. Green printers keep track of their total energy usage and implement strategies for offsetting the environmental impact of their businesses. Electricity consumption is minimized and only FSC certified papers are used. FSC certified papers guarantee that they come from well managed forests and adhere to strict environmental standards. So if we start using green printing instead of the normal printing that harms our planet and our lives, we could actually become a super hero, each one of us, and help mankind make this planet a better place to live in.