While we wouldn’t recommend that you put a dollop of magenta on your raw fish, all inks used by Lane Press are soy-based. For a variety of reasons related to production efficiencies and quality, we maintain two ink sets. One carries with it the seal of the American Soy Association, identifying the publication as “Soy Certified”. The other carries the Agri-Web seal, certifying that the ink contains at least 30% renewable, non-petroleum-based oils, including soy, linseed, castor, tall oil rosin and gum rosin.

At Lane Press, we have a well-established practice of selecting inks with environmental considerations in mind. All of our inks contain no heavy metals, are non-toxic, and are composed of bio-derived renewable resources ranging from 25-40% (as percentage of total ink weight).

Lane Press has long-awaited advancements in the ink industry that allow for inks that can run effectively on heatset web offset presses while containing the required minimum percentage of soybean oil. In general, heatset printing relies on petroleum-based inks because they contain oil that can be burned off quickly at the operating temperatures of heatset ovens. In contrast, vegetable-based inks require higher temperatures and longer drying times. Innovative ink suppliers are now producing inks that contain more soy and other renewable, non-petroleum-based oils without adversely affecting drying and thus the final printed product.

Most environmentally focused initiatives in the printing industry require a delicate balance between environmental responsibility, production costs, and production quality. For example, recycled paper and soy-based inks, while easier on the environment, may in some cases cost more and produce lower-quality results. Our goal at Lane Press is to facilitate the greenest possible heatset printing practices while still producing an affordable, high quality publication. We work closely with our customers to help them understand their “green” options and incorporate the appropriate solutions into their printed products.

 

Beyond Ink Choice

In addition to ink choice, the handling and management of ink usage is critical for environmentally responsible printing. Lane Press follows strict operating procedures designed to reduce ink consumption, recycle ink waste, and properly manage emissions created in the drying process. Specifically, we:

•    Reduce ink consumption by carefully calculating the amount of ink needed for a job and reusing all unused ink. Our onsite ink experts reprocess unused ink for use in subsequent print runs.

•    Consider all ink that has passed through any press equipment to be ink waste. All ink waste at Lane Press is recovered and sent to a supplier who burns it cleanly as fuel.

•    Capture the exhaust from the heatset drying process and prevent it from being released into the air. At Lane Press, we have a thermal oxidizer that incinerates the oven exhaust and effectively removes 99+% of pollutants that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere. Furthermore, we take the heat produced by the oxidizer and use it to heat our building and hot water, thereby drastically reducing our consumption of fossil fuels for heating.