EcoEnclose and Living Ink have officially partnered to offer Algae Ink to any company looking to print with black ink on paper packaging
Ink is everywhere. You can’t go far without handling an item with printer ink – packaging, magazines, keyboards, pens – the list goes on. But few of us really understand anything about what goes into commercial printer ink and its impact on people and the Planet.
Fifty years ago, petroleum-based ink – ink in which petrochemicals are the vehicle that carries the pigment to the printing surface – became the norm across all printing methods. These solvent-based inks are 100% VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which lead to substandard working conditions in print shops and poor community air quality.
Incidentally, the oil crisis of the 1970s led to new investments in vegetable-based inks – inks in which soy, linseed, and tung oil replace traditional solvents. The 1990s saw the Amendment of the Clean Air Act, which set limits on VOCs. Thankfully, this amendment spurred another round of innovation in vegetable and soy-based inks, which emit less than 20% of the VOCs emitted by solvent inks and lead to happier, healthier employees.
Advances were also made in water-based ink technology (which works well for flexographic printing). These aqueous inks use water as a primary vehicle ingredient and, depending on their formulation, could have very minimal, and even zero, VOCs. Additionally, radiation and UV or UB (electron beam) curable inks have also become more common. These inks cure by polymerization on exposure. They, therefore, have no solvents and emit no VOCs.
Today, the landscape of inks is diverse. Flexographic and offset printing printing utilises solvent inks, water-based inks, vegetable or soy inks, as well as UV curable inks. Ink is chosen based on the substrate (layer) being printed on, the printing finish required and the printer’s commitment to eco-friendly principles.
While the terms “soy-based” and “water-based” sound great, they are not chemical free. The pigments in these inks are almost always made with nonrenewable minerals and resources; such as carbon black, which makes up the vast majority of black pigment. Additionally, soy and water-based inks include additives to support drying, lubrication, and longevity of ink, of which typically include some petroleum-based chemicals.
So, while inks have come a long way since the 1960’s, commercially available printing inks are still not as sustainable as we’d like them to be (and not as sustainable as commercial advertisers would like you to think they are). And to be fair, it’s easy to believe an ink is completely sustainable when you see the verbiage “water-based” and “soy-based.”
Choosing ink for eco-friendly printed packaging
When EcoEnclose first introduced printed boxes and mailers, the company wanted to: (1) ensure low to minimal VOCs, (2) minimise the amount of petroleum based substances in the ink and (3) and achieve a high level of recyclability – meaning that the print does not greatly interfere with the recyclability of the packaging.
From its research, it was clear that water or soy-based inks should be considered; with a preference for water-based inks which have low to no VOCs, tend to print well on paper/corrugate, and are relatively easy to deink from paperboard if it is needed in the recycling process. This was an easy solution for the company’s paperboard packaging as water-based ink absorbs and quickly dries on corrugate and paper.
Identifying a water-based ink solution that would be successful with its poly mailer was a bigger challenge for EcoEnclose. Water-based inks don’t always spread evenly on the coated surface and tend to dry very slowly. After testing multiple formulations, the company was able to find a formula that works for poly printing, but it is not without its challenges; always adjusting the pH levels and viscosity of it over the course of the day – something that doesn’t have to be done as much with solvent based inks.
Changing the industry with algae-based ink
What is Algae Ink? Developed by Living Ink, it is the first ink (in the global market) where the pigment itself is made from algae. The main carrier is water (so technically, it is a water-based algae pigment ink). And it’s biodegradable.
Living Ink is a biomaterials company on a mission to use sustainable algae technologies to replace petroleum-derived products, such as ink. Currently, the majority of pigments used within industry are derived from petroleum, such as carbon black.
The company is changing the way pigments are made by using algae as colorants for ecofriendly Algae Ink products. It is commercialising a black algae-based pigment that has a negative carbon footprint, bio-based, resistant to UV-light exposure and is safe. Compared to traditionally used carbon black, algae-based ink results in a decrease of carbon dioxide emission by 200 per cent. The result is a rich black pigment, unlike other renewable black pigments which commonly come out faded during the printing process.
Scott Fulbright and Steve Albers, founders of Living Ink, met when they were PhD students in the Cell and Molecular Biology Program at Colorado State University. They were both researching algae projects related to biofuels and bioproducts. In 2013, it was brought to their attention that the majority of printing ink used in the world are produced from toxic petroleum products. This inspired them to use algae as biopigments to develop the world’s most sustainable ink. The company has raised US$ 1.5M from the National Science Foundation. The company was received numerous honours from the U.S. Department of Energy, University of Colorado, Colorado State University, Biofuels Digest and Hello Tomorrow Challenge.
In 2013, both of them with years of experience converting algae into biofuels and other commercial products, had the idea of growing algae for pigment. Their mission from the beginning was to create algae-based inks that could replace every day printing inks in flexo, offset, and digital printers. However, in the early years of their research and development (in which they often felt like mad scientists at work), they discovered that their first iteration of algae-based ink actually changed color over time.
They turned their fun discovery into time lapse ink pens (with the first ink that grows) and launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2016, which raised more than US$ 60K.
After their Kickstarter and experimenting with screen printing inks, they narrowed their focus on commercially viable inks. In 2017, they reached out to the team at EcoEnclose – primarily, as a fellow Colorado based company with a shared passion for sustainable innovation.
They were eager to test their ink on EcoEnclose’s custom shipping boxes. EcoEnclose committed to including Living Ink’s Algae Ink as an offering to their customers – a ready base of eco-minded people who would jump at the chance to elevate the sustainability of their packaging.
At the time, Living Ink was still in R&D – refining their ink formulation frequently and without a consistent manufacturing process and timeline. EcoEnclose wanted to team up as innovation partners to test and refine the algae ink formulation until it was consistent, produce high-quality prints, and help Living Ink take the innovative formula to market as a better, more sustainable ink solution.
