At Pacific Bindery, we do our best to economically save materials that can benefit the customer’s job and our building in the long run. Here are several sustainable courses of actions we consistently take with everyday bindery and finishing processes: 

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.