Discover new ways to save our lanet


Ink Cartridges Contribute To Saving The Planet

Ink cartridges have practicallylax  environmental  laws  keep the cost down.
revolutionised printing techniques in the
last 20 years. From the days of fiddlingSurely, this is counter-productive. What we
about swapping messy ink soaked ribbons andsave for the environment here, pollutes it
wearing more of the product than you wouldelsewhere - we are only one planet after all.
ever use, to what we have now. The littleOf the 90 million kilograms of waste plastic
plastic box that pops out when empty andcollected from the UK, three quarters of this
slots in, all fully filled and ready to gowas  shipped  to  China  for  recycling.
makes  office  life  so  much  simpler.
This plastic then has to go through a
Ink has come a long way from the days ofprocedure to remove contaminants before it
quill and squid ink. Now containing chemicalscan be recycled. This process can take up to
and additives, the days of smeared and fadedtwo litres of water per 500 grams of
documents  are  long  gone.re-cycled materials, therefore plants cannot
be  built  in  areas  where water is limited.
However, with the discovery of global
warming, every aspect of life and businessContaminants from recycled plastic, such as
has come under scrutiny and it is now theinks, are washed into the local waterways
moral thing to do, to ensure the products youcausing pollution thus making the whole
use  are  environmentally  friendly.process  pointless.
This is where the advent of soy ink, orHowever, use natural ingredients to make ink,
vinegar ink, comes in. This is an alternativesuch as soy ink and you have a much more
to petroleum based inks and aids theenvironmentally friendly product. Techniques
recycling of printed material as well asare being developed in the Western world to
plastics. The cultivation of soy beans usesdevelop a recycling process that will
very little energy in comparison to standardeliminate the need for so much water and is
inks. Although not 100% bio-degradable, soyhoped will be cost effective enough to stop
ink is much more environmentally friendly,the  need  for  exporting  our  rubbish.
which is essential given where so much of it
ends  up.The good news is that soy ink is now being
used in 95% of daily papers in the US. A
Paper and plastic have been the biggestquarter of commercial printers in the United
contributors to recycling since theStates now use soy ink. The only application
government has been campaigning to encouragethis  ink  is  not  suitable for is the biro.
us all this way. Plastic recycling is quite
an expensive process. Due to this fact, muchSo now you know, when choosing your ink
of the recyclable plastics are shipped fromcartridge make the environmentally sound
the US and UK to Asian countries, such aschoice. Use soy based ink products and do
China and Vietnam, where the cheap labour andyour bit for the planet.



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