The Belgian printing consumables manufacturer Eco3 (ex-Agfa) has studied the overall environmental impact of the offset plate at the request of its printing customers. This particular study has been carried out by an independent German organisation, Telusio, which mainly focused on analysing the whole life cycle of the offset plates from the raw material to their final delivery.
According to the study carried out by German organisation Telusio, "Our carbon footprint calculation uses an activity-based approach, which captures greenhouse gas emissions throughout the product lifecycle from birth to customer, eco3 details. This includes all relevant stages from raw material extraction, manufacturing, to product delivery."
The analysis showed that almost 75 per cent of the entire offset plates' carbon footprint comes from aluminium. For example, for a standard 0.3 mm sheet, the carbon footprint produced is around 7.66 kg of CO₂ per square meter. It mainly ranges from almost 5kg of carbon dioxide released for a 0.15 mm thick plate, whereas for a 0.40 mm plate, the emission of carbon dioxide is about 9.58 kg.
Approximately 75 per cent of the total emissions come from aluminium production. The manufacturers have no direct control in this particular area. As Eco3 cannot fully control aluminium production and its emissions, it associates with suppliers who are certified by the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), which meet the environmental and green practices.
Although the Belgian company Eco3 cannot fully control the carbon footprint of aluminium, it had set up a Net-of-Aluminium (NoA) program a few years back. This particular scheme is based on a model that collects all the plates that have been used by the printers. After collection, they are recycled, and almost 99 per cent of the aluminium is recovered from the process.
In addition, Eco 3 also offers a Chem-Free plate, which is more eco-friendly. This plate helps to reduce the overall environmental footprint in comparison to the use of a conventional offset plate. On average, it can save about 15,000 litres of water on a yearly basis and cut energy consumption from 960 kWh to 314 kWh compared to the use of traditional plates.
The company’s study shows that 75 per cent of emissions come from aluminium, but through recycling programs and eco-friendly offset plates, the organisation is working to reduce its overall carbon footprint.
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