Soy Based Inks as Component of Green Printing

One of the leading components of eco-friendly commercial printing is the use of soy based inks. These 100% organic inks now offer the same level of color brightness, intensity and durability as their lead based ink counterparts. The following is an excerpt from William Alexaner’s article.

—

“In addition, one of the most important components is soy based inks, which are 100% organic. With our modern technology, soy based inks can achieve the same color intensity, durability and brightness than conventional VOC releasing (volatile organic compound) inks which are solvent or oil based. Or even worse, Chinese printing, their inks have a high content of lead. Many U.S. magazine companies are now printing in China to save money, there is nothing wrong with saving a few bucks, right?

Well, the problem is that we are killing the planet by using conventional printing and also our selves. Think about it, when you hold a magazine in your hands and you flip through it, how many times do you take your index finger to your mouth to get some moisture, so that the pages stick better and you can keep flipping through the magazine? Every time you do so, you are eating lead! On top of that, the printing industry employs more people in the U.S. than the car manufacturing industry, and now it is being outsourced to China.”

###