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Waste not want not," so the saying goes, but in the printing industry waste is an occupational hazard. Whatever job you’re working on, the printing process will inevitably generate waste – whether that’s in the form of paper, plates or items such as spent ink cartridges. In turn, this waste generates additional costs, both in terms of the disposal of items and the excessive use of expensive consumables, such as ink.

However, printing companies that put in place effective waste management policies can not only save themselves money, they can also make money from their waste. And the good news is that effective waste management isn’t a difficult skill to master. Indeed, suppliers of printing kit and consumables are falling over themselves to make sure that their customers are not being wasteful when it comes to waste.

The secret to getting on top of your waste is to first of all conduct a waste management audit. This enables you to assess how much waste you generate, where it goes and how much disposal costs you. You can conduct the audit yourself (there are a number of online guides that offer tick-box checklists), appoint a specialist waste management company, or call in a supplier who provides a waste management audit.

Free service
Paper manufacturer Arjowiggins Graphic recently started offering customers a free waste management audit. The audit identifies waste reduction measures in areas such as the use of paper, inks, consumables and energy, says Arjowiggins operational marketing manager Angela De Vorchik.

"The launch of the audit follows feedback from printers who expressed an increased need for greater guidance on making their operations more environmentally friendly," explains De Vorchik.

The audit is undertaken by Arjowiggins’ in-house technical consultants who have either hands-on experience of printing or are chemical experts. If requested, the company also produces environmental benefit statements for customers, which give bespoke figures on the reduced environmental impact of choosing recycled stocks over non-recycled papers.
"These statements are provided in a format that can be printed on promotional literature and documents. They outline for the specific print job the reduction of the environmental impact in terms of landfill, water, energy, carbon dioxide and wood consumption," says De Vorchik.

WEEE considerations
The main aim of such an audit is to highlight areas that generate the highest volumes of waste and suggest some easy waste reduction wins. Take ink cartridges. Waste regulations mean the spent cartridges are considered hazardous, so they must be handled by specialist waste disposal companies. These companies collect the cartridges directly from the printer’s premises and charge by the bag or cage load.

The logistics alone ensure that this can be a costly process. However, there are ways that printers can significantly reduce this disposal bill. One option is to call in a company like Indicut, which offers an ‘ink cartridge waste reduction programme’ to printers who use 2kg plastic ink cartridges.

"As the cartridges do not stack inside each other and do not collapse without being cut, this means that the printer is paying for their waste carrier to collect very little weight and transport a lot of fresh air around the countryside," says Indicut’s founder Ray Higginson.

To address this issue, the company offers an on-site cutting service, which reduces the ink cartridges to a fraction of their original size and separates the part of the cartridge that’s heavily contaminated from the part that can be easily recycled.
"As the volume of the empty cartridges has been reduced by a minimum of 60%, this means there are considerably more cartridges per cage, so this reduces the printer’s carbon footprint and saves them money as they are not paying for as many cages to be collected," explains Higginson.

After each visit, the customer receives a ‘saving statement’ outlining the reduction of their carbon footprint and costs. Although savings vary, Higginson says customers have reduced their ink cartridge-related carbon footprint by more than 75% and enjoyed financial savings of more than 40%.

Not all cartridges need to be recycled in this manner of course – some can be refilled – but there are items such as toner bottles where waste is a necessary evil. For those printers who want to dispose of these items in the greenest possible manner, a number of digital printing press manufacturers have partnered with WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) disposal specialist Ereco.

Ricoh UK’s business development director of production print Mark Wilson says Ereco’s service is simple to use.
"For our customers who want to recycle we give them a bag that Ereco supply. They then fill this with empty toner bottles – they can put any vendor bottles in there – and when the bag is full they contact us and Ereco collects it," he explains.
The bag is segregated by type and by weight and a report on its contents is sent to the client where it can be used as part of a sustainability audit or an environmental accreditation approval process. The cost per pick-up is £30 and Ricoh offers this service on a non-profit basis.

"If customers wanted to do something like this for themselves they would have to have a contract with a company like Ereco, but they would pay a higher rate for the service. Ricoh is able to leverage its volume and offer Ereco’s service at a lower rate," adds Wilson.

Further inroads
The digital equipment manufacturer has made major inroads on the environmental front, but Wilson says that it’s still striving to do more. High on its list of priorities is the creation of an environmental section in the Business Driver Programme that launched at Ipex.

"We’re currently talking with consultants that specialise in certain fields," says Wilson. "Through the Business Driver Programme we will be able to promote these people to thousands of potential customers in the UK, so we expect that they will offer their services to our customers at a lower rate."

But Ricoh is not the only digital manufacturer doing its bit for the environment. Kodak runs an ‘operator replacement component’ scheme, which recycles or reclaims components used in Kodak’s NexPress and Digimaster equipment, such as blankets, cylinders, rollers and ink cartridges. These consumables are collected free of charge, with parts that can be refurbished separated and returned to Kodak for remanufacturing – non-reusable parts, such as plastic components, are shredded and sent on for recycling into new plastic containers.

HP Indigo also operates a take-back scheme offering all Indigo digital press users a free used components collection service covering used binary ink developer parts, empty ink cartridges, used imaging oil and bobbin wires.
Both of these schemes are managed by print waste handling specialists J&G Environmental. J&G’s general manager John Haines says the schemes are proof that print has realised its producer responsibility.

Manufacturer-led
"It’s being led by key manufacturers," explains Haines. "It has been a highly practical response to increasingly loud calls for waste reduction measures throughout industry and has helped make a real reduction in the impact of print operations on the environment."

He adds that this is a win-win situation for printers and for manufacturers of printing kit. The manufacturers demonstrate their own social responsibility and also reduce raw material costs by re-engineering components and putting them back into the marketplace. For the printers, there are also numerous benefits.

"Customers are able to reduce the nuisance of waste storage, as well as reduce their disposal costs. In the past, these components, now collected free of charge, would have been collected at a cost as part of general waste," says Haines. "Taking part in the schemes also enables printers to demonstrate the efforts they are making to create green supply chains and thus gives them a competitive edge."

With the ability to demonstrate environmental credentials in the printing industry become increasingly important in a buyer’s decision-making process, getting to grips with waste is no longer an area that printers can afford to neglect.

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TOP TIPS: MANAGING WASTE

Giles Whiteley, chief executive of waste management company SWR, shares some pearls of wisdom to help printers get on top of their waste.

Waste inks and varnishes a large printer could be throwing out around 9,000 tins worth of waste ink per year. This can be used as a low-grade fuel or mixed with concrete and buried in ‘special (or hazardous) waste landfill’

Ink tins can and should be crushed and recycled

Ink cartridges these plastic cartridges waste less ink than tins, but they’re classified as hazardous waste and are usually sent to ‘special waste landfill’. More environmentally aware printers will pay for them to be collected and recycled. A large litho printer could be generating around 800,000 of these cartridges per year

Waste chemicals in a year, a large printer could dispose of around 65,000 litres of waste solvent and 85,000 litres of waste developer. Responsible printers will make sure they are either used as third-grade fuel or that they undergo ‘bio-digestion’ to make the chemicals safe before flushing them into the water course

Wooden pallets are usually sent to landfill, but they can be re-used or alternatively recycled into chipboard

Plastic wrapping this will usually be sent to landfill, but if recyclable it can be washed, shredded and recycled into more plastic wrapping

CDs and cases they’re also usually sent to landfill, although they can be ground up, washed in caustic solution to remove the ink and foil and then re-used

Source: SWR