Changes in sustainability due to technology development in selected printing processes

In the paper, changes in the environmental impacts of the printing processes are discussed. The analysis is focused oil the interdependence between technology development and environmental load. Environmental load is analysed based on the annual input and output data that was collected from Finnish printing houses from years 2006 and 2007. Information on recent technical and process development was compiled from the literature and interviews with industry experts. Energy efficiency and material efficiency are the main topics of the paper. Material efficiency is described by means of material use, waste output and waste sorting. The results are presented regarding sheet-fed offset, coldset web offset and heatset web offset. In addition, the differences between sheet-fed offset and electrophotography printing are discussed. The results indicate that oil a general level the energy efficiency has improved and that the use of chemicals and output of waste have decreased when compared to the levels of 1990's. Paper consumption per tonne of products has remained the same or even increased, likely due to changes in the production. Finally, environmental impacts of electrophotography seem to differ remarkably from other printing methods.