We received a talk from Mark of Seacourt Printing about their work and how they have become a zero waste company in recent years.
1995 - Seacourt were visited by the 'Paint Research Association' which made observations and suggestions relating to issues of waste, such as the fact that six 5m³ bins of waste were being sent to landfill every week.
1997 - Seacourt made the change to waterless offset printing, which uses silicone instead of water and dramatically reduced their consumption of water and detergent.
1998 - They were registered to ISO 14001 in recognition of their change in approach towards environmentalism.
1999 - Seacourt became only the second printer in the world to be EMAS environmentally accredited, which meant that they had to show year-on-year improvement to keep this honour. They also installed a large five-colour waterless offset machine.
2001 - Seacourt were certified carbon neutral amid decisions to use recycled paper and vegetable oil ink.
2003 - 100% renewable energy used.
2004 - The first of many awards, including the SEDA business award.
2006 - They won the Green Apple Environmental Award
2007 - They were awarded their most prestigious award, the Queen's Award for Sustainable Development
2009 - 99.5% water reduction saves 140,000 litres per year and they even installed four wormeries to help compost food waste, which contributed to them becoming the first printers in the world to become zero waste to landfill.
2011 - They received a second Queen's Award.
This talk opened my eyes to the amount of waste that can be created by a printing firm and the fact that it is possible for a business in an industry like that to become zero waste, a benchmark that more businesses should look at striving for. However, as Seacourt are a business, not an environmental organisation, they are concerned about publishing a series of guidelines for other companies to follow as they try to keep their niche in a competitive industry.
Robert Horne Group
The second talk was from Mary Warren, an Environmental Products Sales Manager for Robert Horne Group, who supply many different materials including papers and plastics. They aim to reduce the amount of carbon, water and VOCs (volatile organic components) in their products. Some points raised included:
- 5,000,000 tonnes of paper are sent to landfill every year instead of recycled
- One problem involved with recycling paper is the de-inking process which isn't widespread
- Many paper mills have closed down, which means that most virgin fibres are from Scandinavia, mostly Finland, while recycled paper is only produced in France, Austria, Germany and Italy.
- We will always need to use virgin fibres for paper products as they are essential to add strength but should be used responsibly
Mary Warren also spoke about the DEFRA Green Claims Code, and how important it is to ensure that all products used fall into their guidelines if you include their logo, to protect yourself, business and client. Both talks made me realise that we can continue to use paper and ink sustainably, provided we reduce any petro-chemical involvement. This means that I don't have to worry about changing my initial ideas, and will keep many of the materials used in the current Lea & Perrins bottle but ensure they are sourced sustainably.
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