The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
Why this should be the case is unclear, but new industry associations and consortiums are popping up nearly every day. Membership numbers is their life blood, ensuring that the organisation can collect enough in fees to support itself. But the inherent conflict between needing to keep membership fees low and income high is why so many groups have additional revenue raising activities. For the most part this means insurance and financial services, training, online workshops, awards and even trade shows.
Memberships appreciate most of this and are prepared to pay for what they get. Some associations are in the enviable position of being able to plough their profits back into the industry which is the case with FESPA, perhaps the most successful of print industry associations. Sponsorship income is another route to ensuring solvency, and is more common with consortiums. Such groups are founded to pursue a very specific objective. This can be a lot trickier when it comes to keeping members happy, because it puts the group in the hands of specific interests. Those groups quite reasonably want to see some sort of return on their investments (ROI). With an association, ROI goals might not always be in the interests of members. With a consortium they absolutely have to be.
The thing is with these groups is that the ROI really should go to the membership, not the sponsors, although very often the members and the sponsors are the same. The latest such organisation that’s come into view is the Consortium for Waste Circularity (CWC) which calls itself “the printing and packaging industry authority on circularity of all waste”. The consortium’s stated goal is to turn waste, primarily from packaging, into raw materials for other products. Metals and inorganic oxides such as glass and aluminium can be recovered as metal ingots and glass for recycling. Other waste material can be heated using regenerative gasification to turn it into synthetic gas or Syngas, a combination of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
As a feedstock Syngas can be converted into chemicals like methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, acetic acid, and others useful to the chemical industry. Reaching such circularity is CWC’s goal. The consortium aims to achieve this by developing recycling technology, so that waste otherwise destined for landfill can be recycled instead.
The group was founded by “a group of packaging industry brands, printers, material manufacturers, equipment manufacturers and insurance companies”. More details than that are not publicised, however Miraclon recently announced that the organisation is sponsoring CWC as part of its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda. Miraclon provides plates and eqipment to the modern flexo industry. Emma Weston, Miraclon’s chief marketing officer explained that “When looking at how Miraclon can impact sustainability, we take a holistic approach that extends beyond a lifecycle analysis of our products.” A holistic approach is what circular economies depend on and the emergence of CWC should help drive circularity in the print industry.
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This article was produced by the Verdigris Project, an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Fespa, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Miraclon, RicohSplash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
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