Soybean ink has gradually become the mainstream, and the global printing industry has entered the green era

Japan Promotion printing environmental Protection Association

"Ice Angel" certification issued to offset printing enterprises

The American Soybean Association has made specific provisions on the content of soybean oil in ink, such as the content of offset news ink must be above 55%. If the product does meet this standard, it can be labeled with the Soybean Association's soybean ink mark to show that the product has met environmental requirements. Rice bran ink, similar to soybean ink, is developed by some institutions and enterprises in Japan. The main advantages of rice bran ink are low residue of volatile organic compounds (VOC), low migration, and easy localization of rice bran resources, which is in line with the national conditions of Japan's rice production country. In addition, the ink gloss is high, and the harmful substances in the printed products are less. However, the popularity of rice bran ink is not as good as that of soybean ink, mainly due to the high cost of rice bran ink, the slow drying speed, and the popularity of related application technologies is not enough. Of course, soybean ink and rice bran ink are only the leaders in a variety of environmentally friendly inks, and other environmentally friendly inks such as canola ink (Germany has applications), water-based ink, and ultraviolet curable ink are also becoming more and more popular.

In the 16th century, printing workshops in Western Europe also printed paper "green". The largest raw material used in the printing industry is paper. In general, about half of paper raw materials come from wood, of which about 16% use natural forest wood, and paper production requires a lot of water and energy. Therefore, controlling the materials and processing of paper is of great significance for the greening of the printing industry. However, the front-end management of paper cannot be achieved within the printing industry, so developed countries generally carry out green certification of paper before entering the printing process to improve the recyclability of paper.

In Japan, the green standard of paper can become a national standard because of the "Green Purchase Law" formulated by the Ministry of Environment of Japan in accordance with the "Basic Law to promote the formation of a circular Society", which has clear and detailed provisions on the green benchmark of paper products.