Environmental data on gravure and offset printing

This paper presents environmental data relating to gravure and offset printing. It focuses on theprinting steps in the production chain of publication printed products. The other steps in the life-cycleof printed products have also been studied but they are not the subjects of this paper.The study is based on case studies, where almost twenty gravure printers and ten offset printers fromaround Europe and the United States have been involved.The general, significant environmental aspects of publication printed products have been identified as thefollowing; use of paper, use of energy, consumption (loss) of volatile organic compounds (VOC), includingtoluene, hazardous waste and environmental management. Transport has also been identified as asignificant environmental aspect for printed products but, to a great extent, its magnitude depends on theparticular product. The data collected from printers in different parts of the world were compared toenvironmental data provided by offset printers in Sweden, which were mainly taken from coldset printers.This paper presents significant environmental data for a fairly large number of companies representing aconsiderable part of the printing capacity, not only in Europe but also worldwide. These data canprovide guidance for both printers and buyers of printed products working to achieve continualimprovements and striving towards more environmentally adapted printed products. To some extent,the data can also be used as reference values, since there are few compilations of data providing ageneral coverage of printers in different parts of the world.