Topic Efforts to Reduce Environmental Impact by Using Water-based Biomass Ink Made with Plant-Based Packaging Resin

Social Imperative

Brands today are under a lot of pressure to be environment-friendly. Studies have shown that consumers want more sustainable packaging and global retailers have made it clear that they prefer to work with brands that integrate environment-friendly practices in their packaging.
Recognizing these trends, brands are taking dedicated steps to vet and study the environmental practices implemented by their suppliers and partners. In fact, some brands in the fast/quick food service industry have gone so far as to push forward initiatives that focus on using all-natural packaging.
This has led to a push for greener inks with a higher level of bio-renewable content. A bio-renewable ink can be derived from tree, plant, insect and/or animal materials, according to the U.S.-based National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM). These can include resins, gums, oils, waxes, solvents, and other polymer building blocks.
Brand owners want these bio-renewable inks to maintain the same quality and performance requirements of a non-renewable ink, keep to a cost that is competitive with non-renewable inks and comply with the standards outlined by the brand and a variety of regulations, including California’s Proposition 65 and the European Union’s Toy Safety Directive, among others.

Sun Chemical’s Response

Sun Chemical has responded to the industry challenges by rolling out a line of inks that meet environment-friendly, bio-renewable and biodegradable standards that the industry, brand owners, retailers and consumers are looking for.
Formulated with significantly higher levels of bio-renewable resin content compared to other previous market offerings from Sun Chemical, the new SunVisto® AquaGreen water-based inks deliver the required critical performance attributes needed across a range of paper packaging applications.
The inks can be blendable using varnishes and standard water-based pigment dispersions, and do not compromise end-use or on-press performance. They also offer outstanding print fidelity and ink resolubility on press, quick setting for in-line converting and high levels of resistance properties to rub, abrasion, water and grease.
Sun Chemical’s R&D and compliance teams from Europe, North America and South America spent a year and a half replacing chemicals with natural products to ultimately provide an ink solution that was comparable in cost, delivered the required performance attributes, and met all the standards and regulatory compliance requirements.