Sustainable Fine Art Inkjet printing? Anyone?

[tived]

Hi guys

with the buzz words like Sustainable, Go Green, Alternative...., environmental responsibility etc...

Is/has anyone here working with anything like this, like bamboo, sugar cane papers, I think there are some sustainable Japanese papers, I am not sure the name, Origami or something like that, that offered media's other then traditional papers.

Is anyone here using these kinds of papers, and what is your impression of the output?

Inks, alternative inks, like Soy Ink, is that an option in our inkjet printers. I would love to hear from anyone who has any experience with this, and who would like to share

thanks

Henrik

[Thomas Krüger]

Is/has anyone here working with anything like this, like bamboo, sugar cane papers...

At least they are profitable for the manufacturer!
I prefer to print my daily stuff on HP Professional Satin Photo Paper - Q8759A, 1 roll with 15mx061,m costs around 66 € without VAT in Germany.
Hahnemühle Fine Art Baryta costs around 163 € for a roll with 12 meters x0.61 cm, the Bamboo around 170 €. If somebody pays for the difference I use the better paper, otherwise I print on HP Professional Satin Photo - because it's cheaper. Oh, that's my personal opinion!

Alternative inks are ok, if there is a certificate for the lightfastness. But since nobody of the alternative suppliers has this certifacte, how can you give your customers a guarantee for the lightfastness of your prints? So right now, for serious printing, it's difficult to find alternative inksets.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Hi guys

with the buzz words like Sustainable, Go Green, Alternative...., environmental responsibility etc...

Is/has anyone here working with anything like this, like bamboo, sugar cane papers, I think there are some sustainable Japanese papers, I am not sure the name, Origami or something like that, that offered media's other then traditional papers.

Is anyone here using these kinds of papers, and what is your impression of the output?

Inks, alternative inks, like Soy Ink, is that an option in our inkjet printers. I would love to hear from anyone who has any experience with this, and who would like to share

thanks

Henrik

There used to be a German manufacturer of silkscreen inks and inkjet. Dico Jet GMBH, made as far as I remember an alternative for solvent based inks. I think for the water based ink there's no real alternative without risks that your printer has to be abandoned due to real clogs from algae and bacterial growth and by that may land on an electronics scrapheap in Ghana or China which isn't a sound ecological system either. Using fungicide in the ink isn't an answer.

There is an inkjet ink problem in recycling printed paper, the existing systems are directed to the separation of offset inks etc based on mineral oils/resins from the paper while the inkjet colorants stay in the pulp. Bleach isn't the solution. Wilhelm's efforts make it worse I guess :-)
I do not think that water based inkjet ink ingredients are dangerous for the environment, pigment probably even less than dye.

On the Bamboo paper from Hahnemühle, a small amount of its price goes to environmental initiatives selected by HM but there's no certificate with the paper that says where the Bamboo pulp has it origins. There are mixed opinions on the use of Bamboo for paper pulp and actually concerns about the wild harvesting of Bamboo in India, China, Indonesia. I have advocated the view that the best environmentally controlled papers come from countries in Scandinavië, from Canada, Australia, USA, rest of Europe, from production forests and modern pulp factories with good governemental control and long term investment schemes. The same countries that have high percentages on paper recycling. Wonder what that Chinese lady does now that bought all the western paper recycling firms to deliver packaging material for Chinese export. Lay off employees and dump the paper somewhere on the globe ?  Edit: this weekend's headline on the NRC (better Dutch newspaper): Carton price slumps on Rio's landfills. That takes away the illusion that today's economic climate will not make it worse for the poor.


Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

[tived]

thanks Ernst and Thomas,

well, that sure doesn't sound that promising. The HM Bamboo paper here (Western Australia) is approx AUD$450 for a 44" roll by 12m, funny enough, it is cheaper then PhotoRag Baryta, which I have been quoted AUD$560

Ernst you mentioned Scandinavian paper mills - I am Danish, but I can't remember any paper mills, though it has been almost 14 years now since i lived there. They must be Swedish.

anyway thanks for the input, the ink issue is a bit of a worry too, I am not about to destroy this little baby, just yet.

It would be great if there would be a push for a more sustainable workflow for our industry...

thanks

Henrik

i'll keep plotting along

[Ernst Dinkla]

Ernst you mentioned Scandinavian paper mills - I am Danish, but I can't remember any paper mills, though it has been almost 14 years now since i lived there. They must be Swedish.

anyway thanks for the input, the ink issue is a bit of a worry too, I am not about to destroy this little baby, just yet.

It would be great if there would be a push for a more sustainable workflow for our industry...

thanks

Henrik

i'll keep plotting along

Henrik,

The wide format plotters like the Z3100 are not exactly made for printing food packaging, newspapers etc so the prints will not go through recycling processes within a week, year etc. If Wilhelm's lowest numbers of fade properties are an indication then it is more like 10 years. That inkjet is growing fast in the more traditional graphic industry too shouldn't be your concern. Recycling may need more research efforts then but it replaces some printing processes that still use more dangerous substances and more energy.

Norway, Sweden, Finland of course. Denmark has less trees and more cows like The Netherlands.



Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/