THE NEWS IN PRINT

It might sound stale but it’s true; our environment is dwindling due to printing. Printing leads to deforestation in short and deforestation rises the atmospheric temperature which is popularly known as Global Warming. During my general browsing, I came across an article that suggests steps to ensure green printing.

Here are the highlights of the article:

- Purchase and promote usage of recycled paper. Recycled paper saves trees, landfill space and reduces water and energy consumption.
- Ink contains volatile organic compounds. When unused ink or printed paper is dumped into landfills, it can cause cancer and induce birth defects. Soy inks are an excellent alternative to the regular ink we get at stores.
- Reduce printing by accommodating digital copies in your daily usage. Print if it’s absolutely necessary.
- There are alternative kinds of paper available made of blue jeans, synthetic papers and Terraskin made of ground stone.
- Educate others regarding green printing. Not everyone would stumble over green printing articles like I did.
- The most important point: practice what you preach. Just don’t say it; do it.
- Eliminate glue as much as possible. This is only possible with some creativity. An obvious example would be to bind a book using spirals rather than glue and presser.

The future of printing is obviously in the hands of printer companies who make up the bulk of printing. Green printing would definitely be an uncomfortable word for many but for us to be comfortable in the future; we need it as much as we need oxygen and water.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 4:09 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.