Need of quantifying and grading environmental footprint and impact of printing colors and paper type!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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A widely proliferated but much ignored area of environmental concern i.e. "printing and paperworks" require research and attention as deep and wide as ban on single use plastic.

From toxicity of chemicals (e.g. inorganic pigments, VOC etc. ) used in ink and printing colors, to heavy metal content of ink (e.g. Barium etc) ending up in Landfill, water and food stream, to intensity of resource and energy usages in production of range and grade of ink and paper are some of the key areas of concern.

Scientific research and modeling for panoply of color and grading them in order of environmental production footprint and environmental externalities is required to be done and to be widely publicized. For instance environmental footprint and impact of production and life cycle of white, yellow, red and black color cannot be same, likewise for pale white, true white and color paper, hence it should be established and much publicised that which color, shade, hue is most and least damaging to environment so that end user can make their choices responsibly. Brand is not compared here but the product in raw form itself is being diagnosed.

Incremental pricing based on type and quantum of color or dominant color in print and composition used per square unit and Incremental pricing of ink cartridge color based on environmental load.

What may also help is the incremental pricing on shades of white, assuming true white is most environmentally intensive and that A4 true white is most used printing paper type in day to day and official setting.

Legislation to minimise print copy version of documents in corporate, legal and government setting is also a much needed step.

Why this strange fascination with true white, why this affinity with printing itself unless it's genuinely unavoidable. Just because market is flushed with printers and ink cartridges that doesn't mean you must print. Ctrl+P can be more damaging than you think.

Author: Anoop Jha

#printing #paper #environment #footprint #color #red #yellow #blue #white #black #green #recycle #A4 #chemical #production