China Printing Association Issues an Initiative Letter to the National Printing Industry

To advance the building of an ecological civilization and a resource-saving, environment-friendly society in China, accelerate the implementation of the green printing strategy, promote the transformation of the development mode of China's printing industry, and achieve the goal of becoming a "printing power," on September 14, 2010, the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Ministry of Environmental Protection formally signed in Beijing the Cooperation Agreement on Implementing the Green Printing Strategy. The two ministries jointly established a leading group for implementing the green printing strategy, to study and formulate a green printing action plan, formulate and issue printing environmental label standards, improve the green printing evaluation system, promote and implement green printing standards among printing enterprises, give priority to green printing of primary and secondary school textbooks, and gradually extend it to such fields as printing for government procurement products and printing of food and drug packaging. At the same time, they will strengthen policy support for printing enterprises implementing green printing, phase out outdated printing processes, technologies and production capacity, and drive the transformation and upgrading of the printing industry. This marks that green printing will become the main direction of the future development of China's printing industry.

In an effort to achieve the grand goal of building a green printing industry and turn the implementation of green printing into practical action across the entire industry, the Printing Technology Association of China, together with a hundred printing and related enterprises, hereby issues the following initiative to colleagues throughout the national printing industry:

1. The national printing industry must take active action, firmly establish the concept of green printing, develop a low-carbon economy, improve production models, achieve clean production, and strive to create conditions for green printing production, thereby continuously increasing the supply of safe and reliable green printing products to society.
2. Advanced printing enterprises with the necessary conditions must, in strict accordance with the various requirements of the printing environmental label standards issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, make adjustments in the selection of printing materials and processing techniques: substrates must use paper that meets sustainable forest certification requirements, paper with a recycled pulp content of 70%, natural-color paper, etc.; printing plates must use processless CTP plates; fountain solutions must be alcohol-free or contain less than 5% alcohol additives; hot-melt adhesives must use PUR or EVA adhesives; post-press lamination must adopt water-based lamination or pre-coated film processes, etc. The 8 heavy metals and 13 emission items must be effectively controlled. Such enterprises should become green printing certified compliant enterprises.
3. The vast number of small and medium-sized printing enterprises that cannot meet the standard requirements in the short term must strive toward green printing, continuously work to improve their own production and processing environments, gradually reduce the use of raw and auxiliary materials that do not meet green printing standard requirements, and must never use them in printed products for which the state explicitly requires the use of green and environmentally friendly materials.
4. Printing equipment and material manufacturing and supply enterprises are the source that ensures the realization of green printing. They must strive to produce green and environmentally friendly products of high quality and reasonable price, and provide truthful and accurate product certification. When manufacturers and suppliers do not have products meeting green and environmentally friendly requirements, they must not pass them off as green and environmentally friendly products.
5. All printing and related enterprises must always follow the principle of good faith. Those that present their products as green printing products must process and print such products in strict accordance with green printing standards, providing society with green printing services of genuine practical significance. Printing products that currently do not meet green printing standards must not be mixed in with them, and even less may they be passed off as green printing products.
6. Printing industry media must vigorously publicize the national green printing strategy, follow up on green printing implementation actions, enthusiastically publicize the advanced concepts and practical achievements of advanced enterprises in implementing green printing, enthusiastically publicize society's attention to and expectations for green printing products in consumption, and publicize the interaction and mutual promotion between green printing and society.
7. We sincerely welcome the government's policy support and funding support for green printing, and we eagerly look forward to the prompt implementation of all related work. We earnestly call on publishing units to support green printing by paying a premium price, and to make joint efforts to build an environment-friendly society and a strong publishing nation.

We firmly believe that, under the leadership of the General Administration of Press and Publication, with the support of relevant government departments and publishing units, and through the unremitting joint efforts of the entire national printing community, the main green printing targets set forth in the 12th Five-Year Plan for the printing industry and the goal of building the printing industry into a strong power will be within reach. We hope that colleagues throughout the national printing industry will take active action, truly turn this initiative into action, join hands, unite and forge ahead, and provide more green printing products to society, so as to create a good living environment and benefit our children and grandchildren.

Let green printing walk alongside a better life!

Printing Technology Association of China

April 15, 2011

(Draft for public comment online)

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362127.html