Instantprint recycle 97% of waste through their “war on waste” initiative

Environmental sustainability is touching on just about every industry in the world. The printing industry is one of the latest to become eco-friendly. The Printing Industries of America has talked extensively about the role of sustainability in the printing industry.

instantprint is one of the leading companies in the sustainability movement within this industry. They may entice other businesses to follow their lead.

Instantprint is a Leader in the Printing Industry’s Sustainability Initiative

Recylcing Magazine has talked about a growing number of new trends in environmentalism. They said that the printing industry is not known for its commitment to sustainability.

Fortunately, as the publication reported, this trend is changing. More companies are moving towards sustainable printing options.

Head of instantprint, Jon Constantine-Smith, states that they have “always been extremely mindful about the impact printing can have on the environment. Ensuring their print process is as eco-friendly as possible has always been at the forefront our founders minds.”

This eco-friendly mindset led instantprint to declare a ‘war on waste’ which was set up and monitored through regular internal meetings. These meetings assess the amount of waste in every area of the business, from the offices to the production facility that are all based in the same South Yorkshire building. These focus groups have had a profound and positive impact on waste reduction and led to a big focus on recycling methods across the business.

Constantine-Smith went on to say that they have “taken every step possible to ensure [recycling] can be done seamlessly.” One such way is through using an impressive, custom-built paper extraction system. At every guillotine station in the factory there’s a steel pipe that extracts all wastage and sends it outside the building into a compactor system. The paper types are sorted out into laminated and non-laminated to ensure no cross contamination occurs, as each type is recycled separately. Each staff member at instantprint is fully trained to understand the many different paper stocks, how to identify them and how to properly recycle them to ensure each paper is sorted and recycled in the correct way.

This extraction system makes recycling quick and efficient for the business. While once organising stock for recycling was a manual labour task, now there is little to no effort required as the system does it for you. This means that they have not only improved their recycling method, but also reduced labour time and costs.

Constantine-Smith says, “for all wastage that isn’t produced at the firm’s guillotines, we have a colour coded bin system that all employees understand and use. This even translates to the instantprint open office space where each bank of desks has a smaller scale, yet identically colour coded, set of bins and even the general office waste is recycled where possible.”

Their focus on recycling led them to introduce an eco-friendly alternative for their customers in 2018 – 100% recycled paper stock. This is available across most of their key products including business cards. And once their customers receive their orders, they can recycle all of the packaging, including any plastic used.

Constantine-Smith concludes, “as a responsible printing firm, a product’s full lifecycle, including what happens to the waste outputs when producing that product, is something we’re really conscious of.” instantprint monitor and track what happens to all their waste, and only work with trusted companies who share the same green mission as them. This has meant they are able to recycle an impressive 97% of their waste as a business.

instantprint Co-Founder James Kinsella said: “Having visibility on where our waste goes is important to myself and to the team at instantprint. When you’re in the manufacturing industry, a product’s life cycle is something all production facilities must take into consideration. From concept to that product being removed from the market, you have to ensure you have full visibility on every area of production and look to impact any area of wastage as efficiently as possible.”

Instaprint drives the Sustainability Movement in Printing

With the environmental crisis at the forefront of many minds in 2020 – all businesses, no matter what industry they’re in, should follow instantprint’s lead and take the steps necessary to run efficiently, effectively and most importantly, in an environmentally friendly way.