We use a significant amount of compressed air to operate the bindery machines and vacuum baling system. This requires compressors, which in turn use filters and lubricating oil. We recycle the filters and also separate the waste oil-water mix condensate. The recovered oil is sent to recyclers and the filtered water is used to water the lawn and for other uses.

Continuous Environmental Improvement

We have established and maintained a program of continuous environmental improvement and a target of zero spills of pollutants. By reducing the volume of its discharge of air, liquid and solid waste, we not only reduce the pressure on landfills and reduce costs, but also help to protect the air we breathe and the life in our waterways.

The CleanPrint BC Process

We’ve completed the CleanPrint BC Environmental Management Plan (EMP) program and have earned the right to proudly display the CleanPrint BC logo. This is a process that begins very much as an awareness and educational journey in to the processes and products used in the shop. The program helped us to complete a comprehensive study of all regulations and to implement best environmental practices.

Paper – We employ an elaborate system of vacuums to take away paper trimmings from the perfect binders and stitchers. A sophisticated automated baling system compresses the paper waste into bales which are then loaded into waiting trailers. Trim waste from the cutter and folders are collected in metal containers and picked up by a recycler.

Over the course of a year, more than 1000 tons of paper are recycled; reducing waste sent to landfills. This has a significant positive environmental impact.

Plastic Containers – We use a number of glues: remoistenable glue, traditional hot melt, polyurethane reactive, permanent cold glue, and other types of adhesives that come in containers. We have coordinated recycling of these containers with the glue suppliers. We’re also currently working with an aggregator to remove plastic containers that once contained chemistries, such as solvent.

Solvent and Rag Use – You wouldn’t think a bindery would need to use solvent however it is regularly used to clean rollers on the folders and other machines due to the build up of ink and other chemicals that are offset from the printed sheet. To reduce the amount of solvent and shop towels used, we’ve applied a multi-step approach.

Strap and Wrap – We also recycle a large volume of plastic and metal strapping, shrink-wrap plastic and wooden skids. This amounts to 1000 cubic yards of materials that does not head to the landfills.

In our ongoing search for environmentally friendly products, we have found a new biodegradable shrink film.  It is a polyolefin heat shrink film that degrades over a 3 to 5 year period (as compared to a regular shrink film product that can take hundreds of years in the landfill to decompose).

Sourcing this product in North America was a significant challenge.  We had to go global!  The product is used in the U.K. and that’s where we first found it; but it is manufactured in France. We tracked it to the U.S. and found a sales office in Eastern U.S. who was handling it.  We’re from the West Coast of Canada so we needed to locate a distributor closer to us.  We found one in Edmonton, Alberta.

After running some trials (and making some equipment changes), we are extremely pleased with how well the product runs and performs.  It has good sealing and shrinkage properties at low temperatures and can run on both manual and automatic equipment.

The film degrades at the end of its useful life: it fragments and oxidizes through the long term effect of light and heat. It then becomes assimilated by the soil and eventually disappears in the landfill, leaving only water, carbon dioxide and biomass.

Do the right thing: use environmentally friendly packaging materials!

A company in the U.S., MyBinding.com, is now carrying a new Eco-line recycled plastic coils. The coils are 100% recycled from scrap coils and are remanufactured in different pitches and sizes. The coils are still made from PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) and only comes in black. Speaking with Jeff McRitchie from mybinding.com, Jeff told me that the coils are made at a plant by collecting odds and loose ends of coils currently, melted, refabricated and sold to dealers for commercial use.

Historically, it was difficult to recycle coils. But a company in Brussels, Solvay SA’s R&D Center, has come up with a process called Vinyloop ® to recycle or upcycle coils. The process is done in 6 steps:

1. Composite waste is collected and brought to their plant in either Ferrara, Italy or Chiba, Japan. The material goes through cleaning (washing), increasing of surface area by cutting, grinding, and milling, and a homogenization step.
2. In a dissolution chamber, a solvent called methyl ethyl ketone dissolves the PVC and its additives. Anything that cannot be dissolved will be removed later.
3. The separation of the insoluble materials are filtered in the next tank.
4. In order to yield pure PVC material, the composite product is stripped of the solvent in a precipitation stage. Precipitation of the dissolved PVC at this stage allows the manufacturer to integrate more additives for other characteristics such as flexibility and strength.
5. The solvent that is evaporated condenses in its original chamber and is ready for another batch of material. This allows the solvent to be re-used 99.9% of the time.
6. The drying stage comes last. The aqueous solution of PVC is dried and the water is filtered to remove impurities. The new PVC is called R-PVC (remanufactured PVC) formed in pellets for ease of use. In the case of plastic coil binding, the pellets are melted and formed into coils.

Unfortunately, these coils are only available from MyBinding.com right now. You can contact Jeff McRitchie at jeff@mybinding.com with any questions or order information.

Nakabayashi Co. is a leading Japanese manufacturer of bookbinding machines, office products, and baby car seats (not sure how that’s related). The latest invention to come out from Nakabayashi Co. is a new and innovative machine that turns your every day paper into….toilet paper!

Talk about the savings! At our office, we get our 36-pack 2-ply toilet paper from Costless for $27.99. In a day and age where businesses are trying to pinch their pennies, this would be quite the savings for businesses big and small.

Unfortunately, the technology has to be refined. With 1800 sheets of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, it will only produce 2 rolls of toilet paper. And there’s no indication of whether it’s one-ply or two! The price tag is rather hefty for such a technology as well. The unit price for this new machine is a cool $95,000!! Distribution has already begun in Japan this month and their target is to sell 60 units in its first year of production. Maybe as the technology gets refined, we’ll start seeing people bring their waste paper to the recycling depot and walk out with toilet paper. In the meantime, we’ll continue printing on both sides of the sheet and make sure none of our paper waste goes into the garbage can.

*Note: Of course, immediately after I posted my entry, Business in Vancouver talks about a 400% increase in mixed paper value. The article can be found here.