Wide Format Imaging

Recycling Programs for the Specialty Imaging Community

In the last few years, recycling activities have become more than feel-good company endeavors: They are a must for industries complying with stricter government regulations and consumer pressures to act in a more eco-conscious manner.

The programs are not only gaining ground in businesses and homes, but showing results. Overall recycling efforts in the US, which included composting, diverted 82 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2006, up from 34 million tons in 1990, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

For the specialty imaging community, recycling programs are available for waste created throughout the print production process—from the packaging from suppliers to the process waste from your manufacturing process.

Wiping out Waste

Several manufacturers and distributors have stepped up to provide programs that recycle cardboard, pallets, stretch wrap, drums, spools, cores, plastics, and packing material.

SGIA member Laird Plastics Inc. adopted a sustainability strategy three eyars ago that included setting up economically viable recycling programs. The Boca Raton, FL-headquartered company, through its distribution network of 50 locations across North America, takes back certain plastic materials that are appropriate for recycling, often achieving full-truckload economics, says Kevin Short, Laird Plastics' Regional Executive.