| Ink cartridges have practically | | | | lax environmental laws keep the cost down. |
| revolutionised printing techniques in the | | | | |
| last 20 years. From the days of fiddling | | | | Surely, this is counter-productive. What we |
| about swapping messy ink soaked ribbons and | | | | save for the environment here, pollutes it |
| wearing more of the product than you would | | | | elsewhere - we are only one planet after all. |
| ever use, to what we have now. The little | | | | Of the 90 million kilograms of waste plastic |
| plastic box that pops out when empty and | | | | collected from the UK, three quarters of this |
| slots in, all fully filled and ready to go | | | | was 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 of | | | | procedure to remove contaminants before it |
| quill and squid ink. Now containing chemicals | | | | can be recycled. This process can take up to |
| and additives, the days of smeared and faded | | | | two 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 business | | | | Contaminants from recycled plastic, such as |
| has come under scrutiny and it is now the | | | | inks, are washed into the local waterways |
| moral thing to do, to ensure the products you | | | | causing pollution thus making the whole |
| use are environmentally friendly. | | | | process pointless. |
| | | | |
| This is where the advent of soy ink, or | | | | However, use natural ingredients to make ink, |
| vinegar ink, comes in. This is an alternative | | | | such as soy ink and you have a much more |
| to petroleum based inks and aids the | | | | environmentally friendly product. Techniques |
| recycling of printed material as well as | | | | are being developed in the Western world to |
| plastics. The cultivation of soy beans uses | | | | develop a recycling process that will |
| very little energy in comparison to standard | | | | eliminate the need for so much water and is |
| inks. Although not 100% bio-degradable, soy | | | | hoped 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 biggest | | | | quarter of commercial printers in the United |
| contributors to recycling since the | | | | States now use soy ink. The only application |
| government has been campaigning to encourage | | | | this ink is not suitable for is the biro. |
| us all this way. Plastic recycling is quite | | | | |
| an expensive process. Due to this fact, much | | | | So now you know, when choosing your ink |
| of the recyclable plastics are shipped from | | | | cartridge make the environmentally sound |
| the US and UK to Asian countries, such as | | | | choice. Use soy based ink products and do |
| China and Vietnam, where the cheap labour and | | | | your bit for the planet. |