Is your toner green?

This year, almost all major printing equipment manufacturers are telling others how they are pursuing green production. Some of them are for hype, while others are actually taking action. In any case, we are very happy to see that environmental protection issues can cause so many people's attention. As we all know, as a production process, printing is actually not environmentally friendly, and until the environmental issues finally cause people to pay attention, equipment manufacturers only began to think about what they are doing.

Take Xerox, for example, they just invested 60 million U.S. dollars to build a factory specializing in the production of EA carbon powder (emulsion polymerized toner) in Webster, New York. This internally developed product from Xerox is already quite mature. Compared with traditional toner production methods, people can control the shape and size of toner particles more accurately.

If a new production process can be used, then Xerox will save 25-35% of energy per pound of toner produced, and when producing the same image, the use of EA toner is significantly less than traditional toner. For example, an ordinary cartridge on a Xerox Nuvera printer can print 13,000 images, and an EA toner cartridge can print at least 23,000 images. This means a reduction in the amount of ink used per page and a reduction in energy consumption.

According to Richard Schmachtenberg, vice president of the Consumables Development and Production Group, Xerox is also changing the way traditional toner is produced and wants to reduce energy consumption per pound of toner by 15% to 25%. If all goes well, Xerox will save more than 30 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2008 - enough electricity for 24,000 households to use (lighting) for a year.

Reducing energy consumption is one aspect of achieving green printing, but greenhouse gas emissions are also an important measure of whether a printing plant is environmentally friendly. The new plant is part of the company’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10% over the next five years. Schmachtenberg said: "The factory's computer control system has 4,000 control points. They fully monitor the flow of products and the use of energy, and can temporarily turn off the power of unused equipment and lighting."

Xerox is not alone

In addition to Xerox, other well-known companies are also working hard to make our industry cleaner and more environmentally friendly. Paper mills have been improving their own processes, and some have also achieved great success. Océ's Sustainability Report in 20065 pointed out that they have made significant progress in production, recycling and emission reduction, especially in Europe where environmental problems are more serious.

In order to better serve its customers, Kodak has just launched a report entitled “BeginYourPassagetoSustainability” that allows printers to fully understand the development trends and best practices of the printing industry, and promote the implementation of sustainable development strategies for enterprises. .

This is just the beginning

Facts have proved that the green wind of the printing industry is intensifying. Both the EA toner and the higher production efficiency reflect the efforts of the printing service providers in the sustainable operation as long as they can With a little drop (saving energy, using recycled paper, etc.), our industry will become more environmentally friendly. I feel it is time for us to unite and promote the sustainable development of our business. Whether or not you agree with everyone’s concern about climate change, our companies will do everything in their power to stop the climate from deteriorating.

What can you do for the environment? How can we make our business greener and more potential?