Green Printing and Plastic: No Longer Strange Bedfellows

Zero-Landfill Efforts

The first imperative for printers working with plastic is to institute a disciplined recycling program for their plastic scrap to keep it out of the landfill. In most cases, however, plastic recycling yields products suitable for nonprint utility and industrial applications.

Pace Industries credits many large users of its litho-grade polystyrene for their scrap, which is scheduled to return on trucks delivering new Pace stock. Material is then reprocessed to create a non-litho-grade product. In 2007, printers involved in Pace’s recycling program helped to divert more than 3 million pounds of high-impact polystyrene from the waste stream.