As awareness for eco-friendly practises and sustainability grows, we’ve noticed a shift in interest, especially in relation to eco-friendly and sustainable printing in the fashion industry. No matter what you’re printing items for, whether it be t-shirts for brand merchandise, or hoodies for school students, if you’re an environmentally conscious business you’ll have likely looked into how you can make your merchandise / clothing purchase more environmentally friendly.
It’s true that the textile and fashion industry has come under much criticism in recent years, which many companies not taking into consideration the environment and their impact on it. But it’s not a blanket that falls over all companies creating clothing, and printing clothing.
In fact, here at Garment Printing we work with suppliers who put sustainability and eco-friendly practises at the top of their priority list – so you can also select to have your designs printed onto products from these specific brands. There are now so many ways to ensure your merchandise and products can be eco-friendly, and eco-friendly printing is just one of these ways – and one we can certainly help you with.
Our carbon footprint
The Carbon Footprint (CO2e) is a term used to describe how much total carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases are emitted during your business processes and procedures. A small carbon footprint is much better for the environment and is much more eco-friendly, so businesses and companies should always be aiming to reduce their carbon footprint where possible. When it isn’t possible to reduce a carbon footprint, it’s important to look at ways of off-setting it, by making a donation to relevant causes and charitable foundations.
Many of our suppliers are environmentally conscious, so they’re looking to reduce their carbon footprint where possible. You can read about our suppliers in more detail on their featured pages. One of our main suppliers became the first company in the world to calculate the carbon footprint and place the Carbon Reduction Label on textile products, so we’re extremely proud to work with companies and suppliers who are making such a big positive change.
Together with our suppliers, we work to reduce the carbon footprint of products by around 90% through a combination of innovative product design, low impact organic agriculture, efficiency in manufacturing, and by replacing standard grid electricity with renewable wind power. To find out more you can get in touch with us. This all contributes to eco friendly printing and processes.
Eco-friendly printing
One of the key ways to keep printing eco-friendly is to use water based printing. Plastisol is generally the commonly used ink for printing on fabric, but it’s not water soluble and is actually made up of PVC particles. This means it’s not as eco-friendly as it contains small amounts of plastic PVC. Because it is a carcinogen, which is known to be hazardous to the environment, it’s not considered an eco-friendly option by most companies and brands.
However, water-based screen printing, is much more eco-friendly and work by soaking into the fabric (rather than sitting on top of it). It’s an eco-friendly technique that we can offer at Garment Printing and it’s a popular choice for brands who want to focus on offer eco-friendly products.
