Environmental sustainability is increasingly a board-level agenda, with supply chain sustainability – including the impact of printing – a key factor for manufacturers and brands. The impact of this scrutiny extends to suppliers, who in turn must be able to demonstrate their efforts to reduce their environmental impact. 

For converters, achieving sustainable practices can be challenging, as packaging and label creation can consume a lot of energy and water while producing avoidable waste. 

Modern digital printing technology can help. Michael Matthews, product manager – DP Color, Domino, explains how converters can reduce the environmental impact of packaging and label creation, supporting their and their brand customers’ sustainability objectives.

From ‘forecast’ to ‘print on demand’

A traditional ‘forecast demand’ printing model has long been the preferred option for cost-effective flexographic printing of established, high-volume SKUs. However, changing consumer demand has seen an increase in more limited product runs, including seasonal and promotional releases. The consequence for converters can be unpredictable packaging volumes, with brands preferring to opt for smaller quantities of packaging to mitigate waste while the product is being proven.

Managing shorter print runs can be challenging for flexo converters, considering the cost of creating printing plates, time-consuming press set-up, and set-up waste. Adding digital printing capability to flexo presses to create a hybrid line, or investing in a digital roll-to-roll press alongside established flexo lines could help converters adopt a more sustainable ‘print-on-demand’ business model for shorter run packaging.

With digital printing technology, used roll-to-roll or as part of a hybrid printing process, converters can offer an entirely new business model to their brand customers, with the ability to deliver short-run or variable product packaging while cutting costs and reducing waste.

Reducing avoidable print waste saves both converters and brands money and reduces the need for handling excess printed stock. Energy used in the transport and recycling processes for excess stock will contribute to a brand’s overall carbon emissions. In addition, large volumes of water and chemicals are often used to de-ink excess stock for recycling, with a risk of pollution if items are handled incorrectly.

Print waste encompasses much more than printed packaging that must be discarded due to overstock and obsolescence. Digital printing technology offers several opportunities for converters to lower the environmental impact of their operation, including ways to improve the environmental performance of flexo processes as part of a hybrid process:

Print-on-demand

Print-on-demand eliminates minimum order quantities and prevents overrun, saving energy, reducing ink and substrate use, and lowering the need for transporting and recycling excess stock.

Late-stage customization

With late-stage customization, finishing touches are added to pre-printed stock at the manufacturer’s facility. The packaging design is printed in bulk by a converter, and details requiring frequent updates, such as promotional content or variable data, are added shortly before or during the packaging process, helping to reduce obsolescence.

Reducing or eliminating the use of plates helps minimize water consumption, ink waste, and chemical waste during plate cleaning, and the need to treat contaminated wastewater.

Efficiency by design

The precise drop placement of digital inkjet printheads means that digital inkjet presses only use the amount of ink needed to create the label design, without residual ink on analog plates going to waste at job changeover.

Onboard automation of maintenance tasks, such as printhead cleaning and constant ink circulation, can help ensure reliable, efficient performance while reducing overall consumables use. In addition, the high-efficiency drying technology featured in modern digital inkjet label and corrugated presses typically uses fewer pinning and curing lamps versus flexo processes, delivering further energy savings.

The overall reduction in consumables and energy use during press usage can contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions across the supply chain, as well as offer cost savings.

Workflow optimization

In digital printing, automating the prepress workflow via digital front-end software enables digital proofing, saving time and additional waste from hard proofs. Real-time inline RIP (raster image processing) capabilities onboard digital presses help to maximize press utilization, which in turn can help to reduce energy use while idle and lower the environmental impact per print.

Automatic monitoring and enhancement of production patterns can help converters save time, improve print operation efficiency, reduce downtime, and minimize print waste – contributing to a lower sustainability footprint for the overall operation.

Hardware automation

Combining prepress, printing, and finishing in a single, automated hybrid label printing process can help to reduce power consumption as setup times are shorter and job changeovers are more efficient. Continuous processes typically also use less material, as waste from overrun in each process step is eliminated, benefiting both the environment and the converter’s bottom line.

Conclusion

In the right scenario, digital printing technology can help converters and their brand customers establish more sustainable consumption and production patterns in line with wider sustainability commitments. Digital printing offers significant opportunities for limiting avoidable waste – including print-on-demand business models and late-stage customization.

Those switching to digital or augmenting analog printing processes with a digital printing module for their short-to-medium runs can expect to reduce waste and associated carbon emissions while increasing overall efficiency, making cost savings that positively impact profitability.

With over 60% of converters planning to invest in digital in the next 24 months, the time to act is now.