KCOY Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo - News-Cal Poly Graduates Develop More Eco-Friendly Screen Printing Process

Cal Poly Graduates Develop More Eco-Friendly Screen Printing Process

A pair of Cal Poly grads have a new partnership designed to make the process of screen printing more eco-friendly.

"About 95 percent of the screenprinters today use PVC based inks, it's a soluable plastic that's pretty detrimental to the environment, it takes solvents to clean it," Founder Peter Imai said. "It's kind of a revolution in the solvent-free market and, it's pretty exciting."

He and his business partners at Ecoprintworks.com in San Luis Obispo are one of just 20-thousand screen printing companies in the U.S. but, are among the first to move away from the industry-standard inks.

The EPA recognizes the dangers these solvents pose to both workers and the environment, as do most in the industry. However, Imai is doing something about it and instead using a water-based ink out of Australia. He says it far out-performs previous products and is priced about the same as those that use solvents.

The green printing is in many cases used on shirts made with sustainable fibers. Imai's partner, Left Coast T-shirt Company founder David Whitaker, offers a wide variety of t-shirts on which to print. The options included bamboo, organic cotton, and hemp.

The EPA is working with screen printers nationwide to encourage cleaner and healthier practices. A program called DFE, or Design for the Environment, reduced the use of dangerous chemicals by 180 million pounds across several industries, according to the agency.

You can look for the DFE logo on many household products as well.

LINKS:

EcoPrintworks:

http://www.ecoprintworks.com/home.php

EPA's DFE program and product list:

http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/formulat/label.htm