February 10th, 2009
From Green Right Now reports
Increasing global requirements for green packaging is pushing the Chinese ink industry to become more environmentally friendly, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan. Printing ink, one of the most pollutive materials used in packaging, will likely become cleaner as technology advances, the firm predicts.
The current major three types of green Ink are water-based ink, UV ink, and alcohol-soluble ink.
“Water-based ink is currently widely used in flexographic printing for food, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco packaging in China,” Frost & Sullivan’s China Industry Research Manager for Environmental Practice Vivian Chen said in a statement. She said it will increasingly be used as a substitute for solvent-based ink as application techniques are further improved.
Soy ink or vegetable ink, which is already popular in the U.S. and Japan, should be introduced into China in the next few years, Chen said. Petroleum-based inks contain 30-35% volatile organic compounds (VOCs), while soy inks typically range from only 0-5% VOCs. Soy and vegetable products are used in ink for their oils, which act as the vehicle for the ink pigments, she said.
The first regulation on environmentally friendly ink was issued in late 2007 and came into effect in February, 2008. Though not compulsive, these standards have brought China in line with international practice and the Chinese regulatory system on green ink is expected to improve.
“However, faced with the current economic climate, most medium to small sized local competitors are facing great challenges as they do not possess strong R&D capabilities and compete through price wars,” Chen said. “The global economic recession as well as regulation releases and revisions such as EU’s REACH is likely to add costs to exporters.”
Frost & Sullivan predicts these new regulations will accelerate research and development of green inks and will likely eliminate ink manufacturers that are not environmental friendly.
“Thus as a whole, these factors are driving the sustainable development of the Chinese ink industry in the long run. This not only benefits the printing ink industry itself, but also has profound influence on relevant business such as pressroom chemicals and recycled paper. We can see that China is now stepping into the ‘Green Printing Era’,” says Chen.
In the U.K., solvent-based ink has been illegal in printing food packaging films since June 2000. In the U.S., the EPA opposes solvent-based ink, and flexo water-based ink is the only qualified ink for food and pharma packaging.
The 1994 Vegetable Ink Printing Act mandated that printers with government contracts give preference to vegetable oil-based inks over volatile petroleum-based inks whenever possible. This was an effort to reduce emissions from VOCs and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).
Chen said that supervision power is expected to be increase in China.
“After a series of incidents in 2007 and 2008, such as the Chinese milk contamination, Chinese residents are showing rising concerns for food safety,” she said. “The Chinese government who oversees agricultural production and manufacturing of food packaging, chemical additives, drug production, and business regulation has attempted to consolidate food regulation with the creation of the State Food and Drug Administration of China in 2003. Officials have also been under increasing public and international pressure to solve food safety problems.”
