Deinkability Certification for Public Procurement and Marketing of Printed Products

Abstract

When designing a print product, recyclability used to have little priority. In the last years it has become more important. Among other factors, the printing process itself is crucial for the re-use of a printed product – flexo, UV, inkjet, liquid toners as well as some adhesives can be challenges for the production of recycled graphic paper. With rising environmental awareness, paper recycling becomes a more and more important issue also in marketing of printers and – accordingly – in the development of a printer. But very little is known about coherences. During the recycling process, the ink is separated from the paper fibers dissolved in water, and then it has to be removed from the aqueous suspension. This is why current inkjet inks are almost impossible to deink.Field testing of the deinkability has been done for the last decade but without any rating system to evaluate a certain printed product. The European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC) adopted a Scoring System for Deinkability in 2008. This system is based on the evaluation of the deinkability according to INGEDE Method 11, a lab procedure that has been developed to evaluate and compare the challenge a printed product means for a paper recycling mill.In 2009, INGEDE began to establish a certificate confirming the deinkability of a printed product, serving frequent requests of both authorities and printing as well as printer industry. The certificate has already been accepted by the Austrian Consumer Organization VKI who was the first to include deinkability into the criteria for their eco-label for printed products.The underlying procedure for deinkability testing is INGEDE Method 11. Occasionally is being discussed whether it is relevant for all deinking processes, not only in Europe, also in the US. The procedure allows a solid assessment under standard conditions but is not meant to simulate every detail of a deinking plant.