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WASTE REDUCTION EVALUATION OF SOY-BASED INK AT A SHEET-FED OFFSET PRINTER
Citation:
Simpson, B., P. Tazik, AND G. D. Miller. WASTE REDUCTION EVALUATION OF SOY-BASED INK AT A SHEET-FED OFFSET PRINTER. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-94/144 (NTIS PB95-100046), 1994.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
This Waste Reduction Innovative Technology Evaluation (WRITE) project quantifies and compares wastes generated from the use of soy-based and petroleum-based inks in sheet-fed offset printing. Data were collected in a full-scale print run on a Miller TP104 Plus 6-color press in July 1992 at the Office of Printing Services, University of Illinois, a medium-size in-plant printer in Champaign, IL. our petroleum-based inks and four soy-based inks were studied in a 4400 sheet work-and-turn print job. The amounts of each ink used, each cleaner used, wastes on cleaning rags, and wastes in the wash-up trays were measured for each print run. Each ink and each cleaner was analyzed for total solids and volatiles content. Quantities of air emissions, liquid wastes, solid wastes and costs were estimated and compared for the two print runs. Ink usage was about 17% greater for the petroleum-based ink run. Cleaner use was about 4% less for the soy ink run. The two inks required about the same effort to clean from the presses. There was over 30% less volatile components in the soy-based inks (average of about 0.8% compared to about 4.6% for the petroleum-based inks). or each ink, over 99% of the air emissions generated during the printing runs studied originated from the cleaners. In contrast, over 90% of the liquid wastes on rags and in the washer trays originated from the inks. Make-ready differences between the two runs and variability in manual cleaning make comparisons between use of the two inks difficult in cleaner usage. There were no observed reasons why the amount of liquid wastes generated from cleaning these inks would differ. Similarly, solid waste generation would generally be expected to be the same. The print run using soy-based inks resulted in slightly less costs in ink and cleaner usage. Operating efficiency (such as preventing spills and using only the amount of cleaner needed for the test) can have a greater impact on waste generation and costs than the type of ink used. This report was submitted in fulfillment of contract Number CR-0815829 by the Hazardous Wastes Research and Information Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the sponsorship of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This report covers a period from June 1991 to September 1992, and work was completed as of December 1992.
