Ecologically sustainable printing: Aspects of printing materials

Abstract

Development of non-wood fibers has been one of strategies to ensure a sustainable fiber supply, including plantation management, reforestation and recycling. Some of alternative fibers are algae that can be used as raw material for papermaking. The Shiro Alga Carta papers made from algae in combination with Forest Stewardship Council certified fibers (FSC - fibers) were used for this research. Three offset inks were used in printing: Vegetable-based inks with different amount of renewable raw materials and mineral oil - based ink. Three series of prints were made: Non-varnished, varnished with water-based dispersion, and varnished with UV cured varnish. The possibility of reusing fibers was determined by methods of re-pulping (loop I, loop II, loop III). The vegetable based ink toward improved structure give bather results in terms of brightness, ink content and dirt count and area compared with the mineral oil-based ink. Something lower brightness gain and ΔERIC is obtained with water-based dispersion overprint samples. The lowest results are obtained for samples overprinted with UV cured varnish. The results of the research contribute to the explanation of paper/ink/varnish interaction on the reuse of the fibers, which takes into the area of the ecological sustainable development.