Is Eco-Friendly Printing Possible?

Lalana Zaveri, co-founder and director of Printo, talks about whether eco-friendly printing is even possible.

Via Citizen Matters

By one estimate, the size of the digital print market in Bangalore itself is between Rs.80-100 crores per year. So let’s see how we can minimise environmental impact when printing.

Print waste is actually the one thing that makes printing most destructive to the environment.

Paper is usually manufactured in standard sizes and can be cut into other standard sizes with minimum wastage. In India, the “A” sizes – A3, A4, A5, A6 – are the standard sizes used and prints on these sizes are usually the most economical. However, you don’t have to be stuck with these sizes only. Just before starting your design, do ask your printer what the size of his biggest sheet is and you can then see how many multiples of your design you can fit into the paper to optimize its use.

With mail merging, variable data printing and image personalisation tools that are available today, you can use customer data wisely and artistically to make very attractive, non-throwable marketing collateral. Besides, you no longer need to print things in millions in order to ensure that part of it reaches your customer. The key to personalisation is to print exactly as much as the data you have – no more, no less – and this is possible through digital printing.

A large portion of wastage control has to happen at the printer’s end. During “pre-press”, the printer must lay out the print matter in multiples in ways that the paper use is optimised. Before going through the entire print run, the printer must submit a proof to the customer to check spellings, grammar, formatting and layout. Sometimes, the biggest mistake a print-buyer can make is to trust his/her printer with spellings.

Read the entire article to learn how each one of us (on an individual as well as an organisational level) can reduce the damage we may be causing.