Earth Enterprise Reveals That Using Soy Ink Doesn’t Really Mean It’s Green Printing

April 06, 2016 – – Earth Enterprise, a business in New York, NY, has revealed that the common belief that using soy ink is environment friendly is erroneous. Soy ink is considered to be green by many people, but Earth Enterprise is now questioning this. Full details are available at http://earthenterprise.com/new-york-green-printing/.

According to Gary Jones, Vice President EHS at the Printing Industries of America, when asked about the popular conception that soy ink does not contain hazardous substances, he replied that “the biggest misconception people have is that all of the components of soy ink are made from soy.”

He went on to explain: “Soy oil is just one component of ink. Other ingredients include pigments, resins and film formers, and various additives to lend desired characteristics to different kinds of ink. Some of those other components may come from renewable resources, but many do not. Pigments, especially, are generally mineral in origin and it’s not uncommon for them to be toxic.”

Andy Hort, CEO (Chief Environmental Officer) of Earth Enterprise, notes that “Soy generally only makes up about 8% of ‘Soy-Based Inks’. What most people don’t know is that 40-60% of the ink ingredients are made up from petroleum products, and also contain VOC’s, solvents, and heavy metals.”

In addition, even though Soy Ink dries faster and is cheaper, it’s the #2 cause of deforestation in Brazil. ‘Soy ink’ is a logo developed by the American Soy Association. The only specification to obtain this logo is that it contains a specified amount of soy oil or derivatives. This means it is not necessarily green.

Soy ink is also not necessarily better for paper recycling. It also leads to significant deforestation, and has a tremendous carbon footprint due to global transportation. Gary added: “I have not seen any life cycle assessments to indicate that soy inks are preferable.”

Earth Enterprise, as can be seen on http://earthenterprise.com/, is committed to being truly green. This is why they use a China Tree seed, or Tung oil in their printing. Andy added: “Our inks are forty to sixty percent vegetable based, compared to soy inks, which still are made up primarily of petroleum products. The inks we use have no VOCs, no heavy metals, no solvents, no petroleum, and are completely biodegradable. That’s a green ink.”

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Contact Earth Enterprise:

Andy Hort
642-362-3887
andy@earthenterprise.com
315 W 36TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10018

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