Flexo, the Green Printing Process

By: Frank Anthony The Green movement is happening around the world, most notably in larger industrial and first-world countries, but it's also gaining traction elsewhere.

The movement is being fueled primarily by noticeable climate changes reported by some scientists who believe, and strongly argue, that it is human caused. But of course there is as strong a counter argument that says such changes occur naturally and are cyclical in nature.

Climate change is being caused by higher-than-normal carbon levels in the atmosphere. Because of a reduction of plant life, primarily caused by clearcutting of rainforests in South America, less carbon dioxide is being converted through photosynthesis with water into retained fructose and released oxygen.

The argument continues that industrialization, particularly burning of fossil fuels and other contributions of modern life, is adding significantly higher amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. Some estimate a 35% increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial age. Emissions of carbon dioxide resulting from human activities are approximately 30 billion tons per year. Therefore it would take more than the normal amount of trees and other plants to take up this excess carbon through photosynthesis. Reduction in the South American rain forest makes the situation even more severe.

Carbon dioxide -- considered a trace component of the atmosphere - is a greenhouse gas that serves to maintain the delicate balance of temperature necessary for survival. Too much carbon in the atmosphere, although it admits sunlight, does not allow reflected radiation to escape, thereby overheating the Earth -- the "greenhouse effect" we hear about. That much we know. The cause is debatable.

The United States has the largest number of cars and factories burning fossil fuels. Additionally, our lifestyle requires a greater amount of fossil fuel consumption. So if warming is human-caused, we Americans are the largest contributors. How much do you as an individual contribute to this? How much as a company do you contribute to this?

There is a way of measuring that now. It is called a carbon footprint. It is how much carbon you or your company puts into the environment as a result of lifestyle or production. It is measurable and can be compared with other people or industries.

Your company's carbon footprint comprises all the carbon generated by your process and the products used in those process. Carbon footprint is calculated based on the following list, but not limited to only these items.

? Generation of electricity to heat, cool and operate your newspaper. Your electric provider will give you its carbon footprint per kilowatt. Multiply that number by the kilowatts you consume in a year.
? Generation and consumption of natural and LP gas. Your gas provider will give you its carbon footprint per pound of gas.
Multiply that number by the therms of gas consumed in a year
? Generation and production of water used by your business. Your water provider will give you its carbon footprint per 1,000 gallons.
? Transportation of all employees to and from work. Simple calculation based on average miles per gallon.
? Transportation of advertising staffers to sell and collect ads and newsroom personal to gather the news. (Using the same mpg calculation).
? All facets of newspaper delivery (carriers and district managers' mileage, re-deliveries, marketing mileage, etc.).
? Production of the newsprint, ink, printing plates, plastic bags, copy paper, computers and everything else used and consumed to produce a newspaper. Carbon footprint numbers for all are provided by the suppliesr (they soon will be required to have it available) and are figured on your total annual consumption.
? Waste disposal: Greater waste has a higher carbon cost to the environment
? Efficiency: The time spent producing, packaging and delivering affects carbon emissions

Among printing processes, water-based flexo has a tremendous advantage over offset. At contact points such as anilox to plate or plate to paper, ink is split. The result is that some ink mists into the air, where it can leave volatile organic compounds (VOCs). As you also know, you must report to the government the amount of VOCs emitted in your process.

VOC emissions are based on ink consumption and the percentage of VOC in the inks. It is calculated in tons of carbon in the air. (Hydrocarbons are the primary volatile organic compounds that concern regulators.)

If you're printing with coldset offset litho ink, VOC content is 5%-15%. The amount varies depending on your vendors supply chain and color of ink. Most newspaper ink vendors tend to be in the upper single-digit range. The government requires anything over 2% to be reported. So essentially all offset newspapers must report VOC numbers. If you also print with heatset process, the amount of VOC in your ink can jump to 20, 30 and 40%.

If you are a water-based flexo printer, like us, your ink VOC figures are 1.9% for black and, on average, 0.66% for each color -- all below the government's reporting threshold. A few states require reporting of VOCs at any level.

Flexo is a greener printing process in several other ways. First, our inks are completely recyclable and in most newspapers are captured and reused (a closed-loop system). Or, if you wish, with the exception of the cyan, all flexo water-based inks can go down the drain to a wastewater treatment facility and will pass all federal and most state standards.

We can use soap and water to clean our press, floor, and walls. Offset people use, carbon-based solvents, which have VOC and disposal issues. Next time you are in an offset newspaper plant, wipe your hand along the wall and you will notice the greasy ink build up -- not as bad as the letterpress days, but it needs to be removed with a solvent or it becomes a fire hazard. If you wipe your hand along the wall in a flexo shop, you will get paper and ink dust -- the water in the ink has evaporated. The walls can be vacuumed clean and wiped down with soap and water. And until then it presents a low fire hazard.

Equally important, we fully ink up in one revolution on the press, whereas offset prints thousands of copies at the outset. Short start-up means less time, less paper waste and lower ink consumption -- all reducing the carbon footprint.

There are other, smaller issues that help make flexo a green process: we don't have 10 to 13 ink rollers per printing couple; our ink rags can be cleaned with an environmental friendly process; much lower chance of a pressroom fire (therefore little to no need for CO2 fire suppression).

As global warming and its causes gain visibility, water-based flexo will as well. Beyond the green benefits, once people look at it, they will see the high quality of print we achieve, the no-rub ink characteristics, the bright colors and wide gamut we achieve, the lower labor requirement with flexo, its printing flexibility, and more.

But if nothing else, you now know that flexo represents an environmentally friendly, high-quality printing process.