Sustainability
Circular Economy
Designing inks and coatings so that the pack they decorate can be recycled, not rejected.
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Our commitment
From take-make-dispose to a circular model
We are committed to a more circular economy, where materials are re-used and recycled to the maximum extent possible. Resource and waste reduction alongside water conservation are societal and political challenges that demand a response from industry.
For an ink maker the contribution is specific and measurable: the ink is a small fraction of a pack’s mass and a large fraction of its recyclability problems. Change the ink and the pack changes category.
White paper
De-inkability on paper
In the pulper, alkaline conditions at 40–50 °C release ink from fibre; in flotation, surfactant-coated air bubbles carry hydrophobic ink particles of 10–100 µm to the froth. Inks fail in two ways: they fragment into particles too small to float, below about 5 µm, which grey the pulp, or they stay as large flexible flakes that pass screens and show as dirt specks.
The INGEDE Method 11 test and the EPRC De-inkability Scorecard measure luminosity, colour shade, dirt specks, filtrate darkening and ink elimination. Water-based acrylic inks de-ink well when the binder redissolves in the pulper and releases pigment at a floatable size, which is the case for our UniLux and UniCraft ranges on standard papers. UV-cured films are the difficult case: a cross-linked film does not redissolve, so formulation for de-inkability means controlling cross-link density and film flexibility so that the film fragments into floatable particles.
Sorting on plastics
Carbon-black prints absorb the near-infra-red light that automatic sorters use, so dark-printed PE, PP and PET packs are ejected from the recycling stream. PPWR recyclability classes and the RecyClass and CEFLEX guidelines now penalise carbon black on sortable plastics.
Our NIR-sortable black is a black UV flexo and screen ink formulated without carbon black, using an organic near-infra-red-transparent pigment combination that reads as black to the eye but reflects in the 1100–1700 nm window the sorter uses. The target is a density of at least 1.6 OD with NIR reflectance of at least 50 % of the unprinted polymer at 1400 nm.
Repulpable barrier
For a century the answer to paper’s porosity has been a polyethylene extrusion layer, which makes the pack a composite that most paper mills reject. Water-based barrier coatings applied on the printing or coating machine can give paper grease, water and moisture-vapour barrier while keeping it repulpable.
Dispersion barrier coatings are tested by pulping under mill conditions and measuring fibre yield, residual coating particle size and stickies potential. Repulpable barrier coatings at typical coat weights pass this test; extruded PE and most wax-laminated structures do not.
Circular actions
De-inkable
Water-based ranges tested to the EPRC scorecard protocol.
NIR Sortable
Carbon-free blacks that keep dark packs in the sorting stream.
Repulpable
Barrier coatings qualified against Cepi recyclability methods.
Mono-Material
Inks compatible with mono-PE and mono-PP structures.
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Please feel free to call us. We colour-match to any request and develop inks around your press-room need.
Science Technology Innovation & Application. Printing inks and coatings for packaging, label and graphic printing since 2006.
Contact Us
E105, GNEPIP, Industrial Area Site-5,
Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201306, India
+91-8750051884
sales@ufindustries.com
https://ufindustries.com