Print Solutions
As challenges increase for increasing sustainability, the ability to recycle paper is essential. This means that the deinking process has to happen smoothly and efficiently.
Rising prices for paper for recycling increase costs, at the same time the availability of graphic paper is going down – people read less newspapers, the newspapers become thinner due to less advertising, and the paper collected for recycling contains more and more packaging.
Concerned about the quantity of their supplies it becomes more and more difficult for the paper mills to keep up their requirements for high quality. However, a helpful aspect is the increasing importance of eco labels such as the Blue Angel or the EU Ecolabel for printed products, for which also the removability of printing inks has to be proven.
The ‘Amazon impact’ on paper recycling mean more board in recycling bins – and there is already less graphic paper. This affects the whole value chain, not only the collection, also sorting and quality control.
Prints with liquid toner from HP Indigo are not suitable for the deinking process. But, In France, there is a joint appeal to establish a separate collection for Indigo printer waste ‘so that their recycling can take place in a process where these prints do not disrupt deinking’.
At the Ingede Symposium: ‘Deinkable LED-UV ink and removable adhesives – innovations to improve paper recycling’ (February 13, 2019, Munich) a presentation will illustrate more aspects of the French Eco-Design Action Plan by Criteo, the successor of Ecofolio and Eco-Emballages.
Similar problems can arise from UV curable inks – here the inks cross link due to a polymerisation induced by UV light sources. In many cases the resulting large particles are not sufficiently separable, because they are not as water repellent (hydrophobic) as traditional offset inks. But here the increased research has led to success: At the Ingede Symposium, a new deinkable LED-UV ink will be presented, and the efforts behind the development. This ink is also free from the recently banned photo initiators.
Quality of paper for recycling continues to be a European Issue.
Different collection rates in different European countries continue to be a challenge. In his keynote presentation, Ulrich Leberle of the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) will explain the measures for a circular economy that the European Commission aims at together with the European paper industry.
If you would like more information, or would like to attend, please
See www.ingede.com/symposium. The full programme is also available on the website.
