While wine bottles are readily recyclable and can even be proactively produced to lower their carbon footprint, it’s the label that often the ecological Achilles’ heel. Well-intentioned wineries that want to be eco-friendly may discover that trying to go completely ‘green’ can frustratingly make them see red. Now, print technology suppliers such as ROTOCON offer greener, more sustainable solutions.
The creative handcuffs that the physical limitations of recycled paper and non-toxic inks place on label designs offer little choice to wineries that want bottles with eye-grabbing labels on store shelves and labels that don’t bubble up or peel off in ice-buckets and refrigerators.
ROTOCON believes that wineries should insist that their printers consider make use of a SCREEN Truepress LABEL L350UV digital printing press to produce their labels. Not only does it offer superior quality and an advanced range of finishing options, but it’s geared toward optimum and efficient production, boding well for both brand and planet.
ROTOCON service manager William White explains that SCREEN produce refined inks manufactured under stringent European standards. ‘SCREEN is committed to The European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA) exclusion policy for printing inks which is an important code protecting the health and safety of workers in the ink and printing industries, as well as the end user of printed materials,’ he comments.
Strict regulations govern requirements for inks used on food and beverage products, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. When operating within these industries, manufacturers must ensure that any inks used are safe for their intended purpose, meaning they must provide assurance that the formulations will not migrate through packaging or pose a threat to consumer health if they come into direct contact with products. Non-certified inks from third-party ink providers may contain unsafe or untested substances, rendering them entirely unsuitable for use in these industries – and putting consumers at risk of serious harm or worse.
Williams says SCREEN has always been at the forefront of compliance and sustainability. The recent ban by the European Union (EU) on mineral-oil-based printing inks for food packaging has sparked renewed interest in finding safer alternatives. ‘SCREEN is currently phasing out the old ink and have introduced its new and improved LV02 range of inks, which is an even greener, more environmentally friendly ink,’ comments William.
Accordingly, with EuPIA’s recently updated suitability list of photoinitiators for food contact materials (which came into effect from April 2023), SCREEN has modified the formula of its current LV ink to be compliant.
SCREEN manufactures proprietary water-based pigment inks that comply with appropriate food-safety regulations. Beneficially, it reduces environmental impact compared to conventional printing processes. The use of water-based inks means a drastic reduction in volatile organic compounds (VOC) incineration, solvent recovery and ink wastage.
‘The inks form part of SCREEN’s objective to streamline production flows, enable greater automation and labour savings, while also reducing production losses and errors in the printing process,’ Williams notes.
PDF of article»» as featured in WineLand Magazine
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