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In the past few years, the consumer market has experienced a drastic increase in sustainably produced products, based on rising consumer demand. With pressing international issues such as global warming and the great pacific garbage patch, companies around the world are switching to more eco-friendly production processes and creating sustainable and biodegradable products when possible. Neilson, an American data firm, predicts the sustainability market will reach $150 billion by 2021. In a tweet at the end of 2018, the company informed us that “U.S. consumers are putting their dollars where their values are, spending $128.5 billion on sustainable FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) products so far this year. “ Whether you choose to sell sustainable products because of a moral obligation or to increase your bottom line, the time for sustainability is now.
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Eco-friendly products are popping up in stores all over the world. In order to make your products stand out from the competition, and stay sustainable, the two best options for decorating are digital printing and pad printing. While utilizing methods such as sublimation or heat transfers may get the appearance you are looking for, those methods cause excess paper waste, plastic waste and more. This waste contributes to the pollution issue we are already facing.
Digital printing allows you to create full-color graphics on a variety of substrates. Direct-to-substrate digital printing removes the additional waste and enables a decorator to print directly onto the substrate. The artwork is prepped in a design program such as Illustrator or Photoshop. Once complete, the art is brought into the machine’s specialized software and transformed from a digital file to a print on an item. UV computer-to-print machines are the best method in sustainability as it does not require any additional waste to achieve full-color graphics. In the past, sublimation has been a popular method for printing on drinkware, toys and other hard goods. Although sublimation can also achieve the same results, the process utilizes more consumables that negatively affect the environment. Plastic waste is a major product of sublimation. Once the item has been sublimated, the excess plastic cannot be used and therefore, thrown away. Unfortunately, this plastic can end up in our natural environment. Plastic takes years to breakdown has been known to permeate our oceans as microplastics. Aside from the obvious environmental affects of sublimation, it also increases production time due to the additional steps you need to take. In a world where consumers expect products right away, it is imperative to be able to offer the latest trends or a custom order a few days after launch or an order is placed. Additionally, consumers are looking for the most visually attract product. While sublimation and digital printing both achieve similar graphic capabilities, digital printing triumphs with the ability to print seamless graphics and other design features such as a mirror print or spot varnish.
Pad printing is another printing process that allows you to decorate a variety of different size and shape objects. Unlike digital printing, pad printing utilizes a plate or cliché that is etched with the specific artwork. Pad printers typically range from 1-color machines to 6-color machines and are perfect for promotional product printing, industrial product printing and medical product printing. The ink cup on a pad printer holds just the right amount of ink for printing. Once the process is complete, the excess ink can be safely disposed of.
Pad printing requires a few more consumables than digital printing but comparing this process to heat transfer would yield less paper waste and less CO2 emissions. Additionally, pad printing is safer process for operators as heat transfer labels require a high-heat machine which can easily burn employees.
If you are printing on a sustainable product, you are going to want to make sure your entire process follows your environmentally friendly standards. Inkcups’ recognizes the responsibility corporations have to save our planet and our people by improving every step of the product’s lifecycle to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
We are committed to being part of the solution, not the problem. Inkcups strives to be the industry standard for sustainable practices and products. As a company, we provide practical solutions for eliminating waste and offering safe products for our consumers and their environment. Our in-house compliance team ensures we are meeting and exceeding the strictest environmental and safety regulations. Inkcups’ offers practical solutions for eliminating waste such as increasing the product longevity of our consumables and offering environmentally friendly inks.
Learn more: Inkcups’ Commitment to Sustainability
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