Following drupa I decided to investigate the whole situation of paper recycling and in particular what was the situation of deinking of output from digital presses. The result of this investigation was a paper published on January 12, 2009, that I jointly authored with Ralf Schlözer for Infotrends, entitled Challenges and Strategic Importance of Recycling Digital Print.  

In this paper I found that the Ingede comments drew attention to a problem in the area of paper recycling, but also it was one that the digital print suppliers were aware of, and that they were looking at ways of improving how their output worked within the existing deinking and recycling processes. I also found that output from inkjet printers that used aqueous inks, and from HP Indigo presses, were not the only printed outputs that caused problems in the recycling process. Flexographic printed newspapers were also a serious problem with their dye rather pigment based aqueous (water based) inks. UV cured offset inks, and certain coatings, glues and varnishes could also cause problems. In the digital printing area there was also a problem with output from Xerox solid ink printers.

In this short article I will not endeavor to explain the reasons why the above printed outputs cause problems with deinking, but will instead outline what is happening in trying to eliminate this problem. Paper recycling is a very significant industry with most recovered paper being used for both newsprint and board production. An increasing amount of high-grade recovered paper is also used in the provision of recycled office and graphic quality printed papers. In terms of volumes throughout Europe, 85% of newsprint from European mills is made only from recycled paper and no virgin pulp from wood is used. More than 50 million tons of used paper is collected each year for use in the recycling process. The overall recycling rate in 2007 for Europe was that 64.5% of all recovered paper was being recycled.