Some of these are substantial. Specifying FSC is a laudable decision, but with 75% of a piece of print’s carbon footprint already incurred by paper manufacture, if the FSC mill is powered by fossil-fuel electricity, how does that benefit the planet?

Other issues, however, are easier to tackle. With redundant packaging to be disposed of and carbon miles incurred in unnecessarily freighting fresh air, delivery of environmentally kosher consumables, rather than their actual use, can prove to be a financial sting that catches printers unawares. Probably the biggest current bone of contention with suppliers revolves around the two-kilo plastic ink cartridge favoured by most sheetfed press manufacturers. Although the cartridge is a highly efficient dispensing system, it’s deemed as hazardous waste after use owing to the residue left in the nib. Disposal has to be paid for by the printer.

Well on the way towards achieving ISO 14001 as well as FSC and PEFC accreditation, £4m-turnover Sheffield-based Northend is a classic example of an SME proactively seeking to better itself by complying with supply chain CSR requirements. What irks managing director Nigel Stubley, however, is the apparent indifference shown by his own suppliers towards helping him to maintain a greener environment.

Unnecessary cost
In common with around 2,500 other UK printers generating a total of more than 800,000 redundant cartridges a year, Northend relies on the specialist disposal services of J&G Environmental to deal with
the problem.

“OK, so the £1,500 per month it’s costing us may have a fractional 1% impact on overheads, but it’s unnecessary,” says Stubley.

Surprisingly, it’s a view with which J&G managing director Steve Armstrong agrees. “We charge the printer £85 for a 1,000-litre intermediate bulk container into which they put all their empty cartridges. The end bit goes as a low-grade fuel, and the shredded core then goes through our wash-plant as recyclate to end up as things like drainpipes.

“As well as not wanting this scrap to go to landfill, the printer is also having to pay to keep it out. The supplier has a social-responsibility issue here to help with downstream disposal in some way,” Armstrong says. “It’s like: I give you something that you need, and here’s the tool to minimise the after-life problem.”

While acknowledging cartridge disposal as a focus of irritation, Heidelberg service director Ian Wilcock insists that the format offers more advantages than disadvantages.

“Its main plus point is the massive reduction of ink waste in operation by providing a fail-safe method of dispensing that requires no skill-set on the part of the press operator. Cartridges can also be stored part-used without any deterioration, yielding further savings,” he says.

“If we could resolve removing the ink-contaminated section of the cartridge – maybe by the provision of on-site nib cutters – that would be beneficial. But this is a nuisance issue, it’s not going to make an enormous environmental impact.”

While Sun Chemical technical services director Kevin Purdy stresses the focus that the UK’s largest supplier has placed upon promoting greater use of its environmentally friendly vegetable-based inks in recent years, he agrees that packaging is an area still in need of attention.

“The cost of manufacturing the cartridge is significantly higher than that of the tin, yet people perceive that plastic should be the cheaper option. The answer to the cartridge situation is for someone to come up with a really good cardboard solution, within which the end-cap can be knocked out under pressure, and the core could go straight into the paper disposal waste stream. We’ve tried several types, but the problem is that there’s a higher cost that few printers are prepared to engage with.”

Other options
Reverting back to metal – not the 2.5kg vacuum-sealed industry standard, but a volume capacity steel, straight-sided drum – is a option increasingly favoured by the larger or more committed, environmentally conscious sheetfed printers.

Working in close consultation with ink supplier Stehlin Hostag, it’s the solution that Sherwood Press adopted three months ago and is already generating a cost benefit as well as a waste-reduction benefit, says director Paul Watson.

“One 250 kilo barrel of ink equates to about 125 cartridges. We’ve got four colours so we’re getting through on average about eight barrels per month. So far we’re using the empty drums for things like old blankets or storing recyclable general waste; when we get to a surfeit, either Stehlin will take them back or else we’ll go through J&G.”

In order to direct ink from bulk containers to its Komori presses, Sherwood has had to install a centralised pumping system. At £80,000, some printers might balk at the investment. However, it’s worth talking it through with your ink supplier, says Cambrian Printers operations director Doug Gray.

“What certain ink companies will do now is to add a couple of pence per kilo, and sign the printer up to say a two-year duration deal which will include giving them the pumping equipment. Ideally, we’d like to buy on consignment, which means paying the difference between weight in and weight out, and get a returnable or refillable solution,” he says. “That already happens in web offset and newspaper sectors, where they use silos of one tonne.”

While Stehlin Hostag’s delivery fleet is switching to LPG fuel, the supplier shares an industry-wide problem of unnecessary carbon miles incurred through empty return trips.

“We’re exploring the possibility of offering customers the option of carbon-neutral deliveries,” says managing director David Ward. “They would pay a small premium on delivery, and then that would be re-invested into an offsetting facility.”

While everyone is bent on improving logistics, they’ll be pushed to match pressroom consumables supplier Hydro Dynamic Products (HDP). Not only has the company successfully persuaded its 1,000 UK customers to stick to pre-determined delivery dates in order to optimise transportation nationwide, it has operated a returnable/refillable service on its 25- and 10- litre plastic containers for the past 33 years, says managing director David Sheard.

“These are robust things and we always thought it was outrageous that a container built for extended life might only be used once. We put identification marks on the base of our containers to show how many trips they’ve done; on average they can complete five consecutive cycles.”

Extended service
HDP has further extended into the waste disposal business, says Sheard. “As well as delivering virgin consumables, our vehicles will pick up any waste. As far as volumes are concerned, we say that as long as you buy 25 litres or kilos of anything from us we guarantee to take away the equivalent weight in anything else.

“We’ve identified various waste disposal sites at which to drop off that waste on the way back from the customer. On average, our vehicles make three stops on the return trip, and by the time they get back to our headquarters they’re only carrying our own empty containers for recycling.

“Our waste recycling turnover has increased quite dramatically to become a significant part of our business, and was really driven by wanting to bring back vehicles full as well as going out full. We’re now handling so much waste that we’re struggling and we have to plan those return journeys more carefully than the outward ones,” he says. “Customers either accept the fact that there’s a minimal charge per litre or else it’s included within the cost of the product they’re buying. Either way, it’s far cheaper than having to get rid of the waste themselves.”

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CASE STUDY
Polar Print
Polar Print Group has never had an ink cartridge on its premises, nor will it, ever. The company is currently going through a £3m investment programme to replace its ageing Heidelberg press line with KBA machines. According to managing director David Gask, the company’s first alcohol-free and hybrid-ink-enabled six-colour Rapida 105 represents a world first as it’s been supplied on a carbon-neutral basis.

“We have calculated all the carbon emissions involved in the manufacture and delivery of this press and ensured that commensurate investments have been made in carbon-offsetting schemes,” he says.

“KBA has already taken significant steps in mitigating its carbon footprint and was very open-minded to our initiative.

“Time was that print buyers thought they were doing it right if they just chose an environmental stock. But that’s of little value if the printing process is using lots of harmful chemistry, not being very efficient in its use of energy and incurring an unnecessary carbon footprint as part of the delivery process.

“Before now, we were using tins that were crushed on-site prior to disposal, but we’ve now moved to ink-line pumping using large barrels, which can be re-used three or four times.”

“We’re working closely with Stehlin Hostag, which is now trialling a six-month shelf-life system for delivering special inks in a re-usable bag incorporated within a recyclable cartonboard or corrugated box.”