Tri-Lakes Printing – ECO Friendly Printing
At Tri-Lakes Printing we pride ourselves in keeping strict environmentally friendly guidelines to our print processes.
Our large format printer utilizes eco-solvent ink. This vegetable-based ink prevents the spread of volatile organic components or VOC’s which can cause adverse health effects, damage soil and groundwater and present a threat to the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gas. If that isn’t exciting enough, besides being better for the environment than standard laser or inkjet printers (which use petroleum-based ink), eco-solvent printers produce prints that are UV and water-resistant for up to three years in outdoor applications!
Our 4-Color press uses waterless ink. It also uses a lot less paper to set up a job. We are ready to print in 20 sheets as opposed to older presses that can waste anywhere from 400 to 500 sheets. This saves a lot of paper and saves our customers money.
For those who are interested in doing their part for the environment, we have a full line of recycled paper on which your print or copy job can be produced.
We recycle all our waste paper and boxes. All the proceeds are donated to the Shriners of Colorado Springs.
Below are some misconceptions about print that should help you understand why being green isn’t necessarily about printing less.
Print Misconceptions
Today the U.S. has 20% more trees that it did on the first Earth Day, which took place in the spring of 1970.
Private landowners plant about 4 MILLION trees every day, which is 4 times more than they harvest. This gives them the income they need to maintain, renew and manage this valuable forest resource sustainably. By providing a market for responsibly grown wood fiber, the U.S. paper industry encourages forest land owners to continue managing their lands rather than selling them for development or other non-forest uses. This is an especially important consideration in facing economic pressure to covert forest land to non-forest uses.
11% of the world’s forests are used for paper, 28% for lumber and 53% for fuel.
Forests “left to themselves” would perish due to disease, fire, and other natural causes.
Tri-Lakes Printing uses FSC Certified paper, which means the wood used to make the paper has come from a company that follows the Forest Stewardship
Council’s guidelines in the harvesting of trees. The intent of the FSC system is to shift the market to eliminate habitat destruction, water pollution, displacement of indigenous peoples and violence against people and wildlife that often accompanies logging.
No one should waste paper, but you are not “killing trees” when you choose to print something on paper. We only work with companies that are responsible to the environment. Our new state of the art presses have very little waste compared to older presses. Our old presses used 400-500 sheets of paper to set up a print job and now we can set that same job up using only 20 sheets of paper.
Electronic communication is more Environmentally friendly than Print – FALSE
In the U.S. around 60% of energy used to make paper comes from renewable resources.
Adverse health effects from producing an e-reader are 70 times worse than producing a book.
CO2 emissions for making a CD are 4 times higher than from printing a 100 page, 4-color annual report.
In 2008, Americans generated 3.16 million tons of electronic waste.
Electronic devices typically require the mining and refining of dozens of mineral and metals, as well as the use of plastics, hydrocarbon solvents, and other non-renewable resources.
50-80% of electronic waste collected for recycling is shipped overseas and often unsafely dismantled.
Printing is the only medium with a one-time carbon footprint- all other media require energy every time they are viewed.
As new research emerges, it is clear that “either/or” is not the answer. One must consider all the inputs and outputs before making a decision about which communications are better delivered electronically or on paper. By linking the power of paper with the efficiency of electronics, we can streamline our communications and help maintain the best environmental balance possible.
Adverse health effects from producing an e-reader are 70 times worse than producing a book.
CO2 emissions for making a CD are 4 times higher than from printing a 100 page, 4-color annual report.
In 2008, Americans generated 3.16 million tons of electronic waste.
Electronic devices typically require the mining and refining of dozens of mineral and metals, as well as the use of plastics, hydrocarbon solvents, and other non-renewable resources.
50-80% of electronic waste collected for recycling is shipped overseas and often unsafely dismantled.
Printing is the only medium with a one-time carbon footprint- all other media require energy every time they are viewed.
As new research emerges, it is clear that “either/or” is not the answer. One must consider all the inputs and outputs before making a decision about which communications are better delivered electronically or on paper. By linking the power of paper with the efficiency of electronics, we can streamline our communications and help maintain the best environmental balance possible.
Being green does not mean using digital communication instead of print.
63.5% of all paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling in 2010. Paper recovery for recycling has increased by 77% since 1990.
Printed products are a renewable resource. Once a printed product has served its purpose, it reenters the cycle as a new product.
33% of paper comes from wood chips and sawmills scraps: another 33% comes from recycled paper.
Direct mail represents just 2.4% of municipal solid waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The recycling recovery rate of direct mail has grown nearly 700% since 1990. In 2009, discarded TV’s computers, printers, scanners, fax machines, mice, keyboards and cell phones totaled about 2.37 million tons of waste.
We strive to deliver the most competitive price with the highest Quality Printing. We can meet any printing need and at the same time save on the environment.
Call for a quote today 719-488-2544