The phrase “environment-friendly printing” could be defined as an oxymoron, just like “genuine fake” or “happily married”. If you want to protect the environment, you should not be printing – plain and simple! Everything about printing is harmful to the environment – the toner or inks, the media or printing substrates and more than both of these put together, the waste generated through printing.

Print waste (Pic courtesy: Lalana Zaveri)

But print communication is a necessity in today’s market-based economy. By one estimate, the size of the digital print market in Bangalore itself is between Rs.80-100 crores per year. So let’s see how we can minimise environmental impact when printing.

Print waste is actually the one thing that makes printing most destructive to the environment. There are many root causes for print waste, most of which occur even before a single print is fired. The responsibility of addressing these root causes and reducing waste lies as much with the designer and the marketer as with the printer, but definitely more so with the printer. More often than not, a printer will merely accept a print job, build in the cost of wastage into his final price to the customer. The printer may do nothing to educate the customer on how he/she can optimize the use of paper and ink and, therefore, drive down costs as well as wastage.

Yes, there are ways of saving money while saving the environment. In fact, most of the time, if you consciously try to save one, the other one automatically benefits.

Whether you are a city-based business person or government official or department head at a college or the head of a local NGO or an office-bearer at a residents association, you need to be aware of ways which can help the ecology and the economy. Then, when you work with designers and marketers for your own print materials, you can take informed decisions.

Using standard sizes

Walk into the finishing section of a regular printing press and you will find yourself walking over a carpet of waste paper in all shapes and sizes. You’ll find various printed material – invites, marketing collateral – being trimmed, cut, guillotined and die-punched to produce the final attractive product, meant to catch the receiver’s eye. At what cost? For every round, oval, heart-shaped, flower-shaped brochure you receive, anything from 10 per cent to 30 per cent of the paper used has ended up on the printer’s floor – this is 10 per cent to 30 per cent of the price being paid for the printing.

Paper is usually manufactured in standard sizes and can be cut into other standard sizes with minimum wastage. In India, the “A” sizes – A3, A4, A5, A6 – are the standard sizes used and prints on these sizes are usually the most economical. However, you don’t have to be stuck with these sizes only. Just before starting your design, do ask your printer what the size of his biggest sheet is and you can then see how many multiples of your design you can fit into the paper to optimize its use. Do remember to leave enough “printer margin” all around the edge of the paper though!

Lalana Zaveri is an acolourist, with about 12 years experience in the field of marketing, of which 4 years has been in the marketing of printers and print products. She is co-founder and director of Printo – a Bangalore-headquartered chain of retail shops offering design, print and personalised gifting solutions.

See articles on