Inks and Environmental Issues — Compliance vs. Quality

According to most major ink manufacturers, the votes are already in. Reports show the strongest areas of ink growth are in UV curing, water-based, soy-based, and waterless inks—in that order.

The heightened growth in UV (and EB) ink has been spurred, in part, by the fact that these inks are 100-percent solids and contain less than 1-percent VOCs. Also, since UV inks don't dry on the press, there's less washup, which translates to less harmful waste. Less skinning is another environmentally friendly benefit of UV ink.