Here you will find blogs from Digital Dots and Verdigris covering technology and sustainability advances in the graphics industry over the last 25 years.
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Sad to say the paper industry is still one of the world’s top polluters, alongside steel and energy producers. According to the European Union’s (EU) Science hub the sector is still Europe’s fourth largest polluter and yet it could be doing far more to reduce its emissions. Paper … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner We tend to expect the makers of substrates to be the ones who come up with affordable and recyclable materials, but Australia’s Cactus Imaging is putting those manufacturers to shame. Cactus Imaging is Australia’s market leader for large format digital print, with extensive international and domestic client bases. … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner The enthusiasm for plastics reuse and recycling initiatives is a step in the right direction, but it overlooks the role of consumers. For most people understanding what can and cannot be recycled is difficult, so perhaps the graphics industry can help. Perhaps plastic materials that can be composted … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner At the recent Xeikon Café event in Belgium, on display were samples of single use cups printed on a new plastic free stock. Xeikon announced that it is partnering with Kotkamills, a Finnish company which develops repulpable, recyclable and renewable paperboards for packaging and food service applications. Kotkamills … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Corporate Knights is a Canadian research and publishing company dedicated to reporting on sustainable capitalism. Since 2005 it has compiled an annual list of the top one hundred most sustainable companies in the world. Corporate Knight conducts its evaluations independently and companies make no submissions, except to verify … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Packaging printed onLow Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is changing. LDPE is the cheapest and most commonly used recyclable plastic but it takes hundreds of years to biodegrade. This is in part why various packaging print buyers are moving to alternatives and a key candidate is plastics made from potato … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner A couple of weeks ago we talked about the need for designers to think about the environment when planning media projects. This is especially important in the context of deinking and recycling. But it goes further than thinking about substrates, inks, energy and printing processes. Water solvents, transportation, … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Circular economies are all well and good, but it takes dialogue at many levels, not least between governments. The urgency of dealing with plastic waste was illustrated in a recent report that a small town in Malaysia has become a primary dumping ground for plastic waste. The place … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner We’ve been working recently with people from the paper industry and it’s been enlightening. The paper business has a long and lofty history: it’s hundreds of years old; it’s been a terrific earner for its shareholders over the years; and it’s been a success story for most of … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner All the talk about building circular economies can seem very remote from the day to day realities of living life and work’s daily grind. It’s easy to think of creating a circular economy as someone else’s gig. But that is too convenient and ultimately a little lazy because, … Read more