Earth Friendly Printing

It's no secret that paper production taxes forests, water, and energy supplies. In fact, eco-advocacy group Environmental Defense estimates that producing one ton of virgin uncoated paper — which accounts for 90 percent of the United States' printing and writing paper — requires three tons of wood, 19,075 gallons of water, and generates 2,278 pounds of solid waste.

Moreover, many white papers are bleached via a chlorination process that releases dangerous chemicals and pollutants into the water, according to sustainable-design Web site Renourish.

"The printing industry is the single largest air polluter and the third-largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world after automobiles and steel manufacturing," said Renourish Founder and University of Illinois Design Professor Eric Benson. "On a typical day, [printers] use trillions of gallons of water that must be treated for its toxic chemical content and released back into our waterways."

The printing process itself is equally hazardous: Many of the solvents, shellacs, driers, and other solutions employed in producing film, printing plates, and cleaning the presses are toxic pollutants.

Happily, eco-friendly options are on the rise.

This "Greenway Green" portion of our website is here to provide you with tons of information so that you can make an informed decision on your earth friendly printing needs. Click on the menu at the top for the information that you want.