ENVIRONMENT: REDUCING CHEMICAL WASTE

In 2006 Blue Star has once again shown itself to be a leader in sustainable business practices and within the Print industry with the introduction of a new distillation recycling wash plant.

The drivers behind this included:

• significant reduction in virgin wash purchases
  
  
• continuous improvement of our environmental program
  
  
• Reduce, recycle and Reuse Program
  
  

Distillation systems recover around 80% of virgin purchases; however, their versatility is that they can process any type of wash. Blue Star will not be restricted to using filterable washes that have sometimes shown to have lower than acceptable cleaning properties.

Blue Star has formed a partnership with Nova Inks and Chemicals, a major supplier of inks to the printing industry in New Zealand.

The key benefits of the distillation system include:

• reduction in blanket and roller wash
  
  
• reduction in electricity as a low temperature vacuum is used to boil off waste
  
  
• 85% of wash is recovered for reuse
  
  
• water is pure and can be reused or it can be disposed of safely into our stormwater systems
  
  
• very low amounts of ink "sludge" are produced and being vegetable oil based is biodegradable
  
  
• less demand for fossil fuels (which is what all washes are based on)
  
  
• Steel drums that the wash is supplied in are now refilled and reused.

The Distillation system is a first for Australasia and demonstrates Blue Stars commitment to sustainable environment and products. We are using an extremely environmentally friendly system which will supply up to 80% of our wash needs as a recycled product and significantly reduce our virgin wash purchases at the same time.

For more information please refer to the Distillation Case Study