At Orchard Street Press, we are always looking for new ways to minimize our environmental impact and boost sustainability.
Screen printing has always been an industry of plastisol inks (which contain PVCs, phthalates and heavy metals) and harsh solvent cleaners. We don't think it has to be, and here are a few of the things we're doing to help break that cycle.
Inks: We exclusively use Matsui 301-ECO series by Matsui International and Permaset Aqua by Colormaker Industries.
Matsui 301: Contains no harmful chemicals or toxic substances as known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. It is free of environmentally damaging chemicals such as PVC, phthalate, heavy metals, azo compounds, nonylphenol and formaldehyde.
Permaset: Contains no PVCs, phthalates or any toxic chemicals whatsoever. It is formulated free from Lead and other heavy metals. Permaset Aqua inks do not contain ozone-depleting chemicals such as CFC's and HCFC's, aromatic hydrocarbons or any volatile solvents.
Unlike traditional plastisol inks, these waterbased products are considered to be safe by the CPSC for use on baby clothes under 2 years, underwear and swimwear.
You may be thinking it’s not possible for waterbased inks to cover well on dark garments. That is true of traditional waterbased inks, but a quick look at our gallery should prove that Matsui and Permaset products have intense pigment color for excellent coverage, opacity and color brightness, even on dark garments. Furthermore, they are highly durable to wash, rub and dry-clean. The majority of customers cannot detact any difference between our waterbased printing and other shops plastisol printing.
No Solvents: We don't use 'em! Because our inks are waterbased, they clean up with water. The cleaners and screen printing components we do use in our shop are biodegradable and organic-- many are soy based.
No Aerosols: We don’t use em! Many screen printing shops use aerosol spray adhesives to hold down shirts while printing and aerosol screen openers to clear up clogs in screens. We use a non spray adhesive to hold down garments, and since all of our inks are waterbased, our screen opener is a spray bottle of good ole h20.
Dip Tanks: We utilize dip tanks to clean and reclaim screens, rather than spraying each screen individually. This helps us to minimize our water consumption while maximizing each bottle of the cleaners and components we do use.
Basic Recycling: We do our best to re-use everything we can think of. Every box that comes in our door from a supplier is re-sent to a customer carrying their order. Misprinted t shirts get the lovely job of being "test print" t shirts. When there is no more space to print on them, they are turned into rags. Likewise, poster misprints are used as scrap paper before ultimately being recycled. This trend also extends to inks. After each run we do our best to get each and every drop back in a bucket so it can ultimately land on a garment or poster. Obscure colors get mixed into a "recycling" bucket, which is eventually pigmented into black ink. 99.9% of our ink gets recycled.
Water Filtration: We filter all of our wastewater through salt traps installed in each of our drains. These salts break down the bonds in waterbased concentrates and let the pigments and binders separate and dissolve into water, making them more easily filtered at the water treatment plant.
We are always looking for new and exciting ways to make our shop more environmentally friendly. If you’ve got any ideas or suggestions, don’t hesitate to pass them on:
