Environmental Impact Assessment of Flexible Package Printing with the “LUNAJET®” Aqueous Inkjet Ink Using Nanodispersion Technology

The share of digital printing on flexible plastic packaging has been increasing rapidly in response to the market demand for agility in Japan. To meet all these challenges, our response is the aqueous inkjet ink “LUNAJET®”. By combining aqueous pigment nanodispersions with precise interfacial control technologies, “LUNAJET®” can contribute to the rapid digitization of flexible package printing while, at the same time, improving the environmental performance. Our analysis includes an evaluation of the environmental impact due to the conversion from gravure printing with an analog press to digital printing using an inkjet printer with water-based inks. In addition, inventory analyses and characterizations were carried out. It is shown that a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions and 33% reduction in VOC (volatile organic compounds) emissions can be expected, particularly in small-lot printing, where digital printing is most desirable. An environmental impact assessment was conducted in Japan, based upon the LIME3 (life cycle impact assessment method based on endpoint modeling version 3) approach. It was found that the waste reduction rate for aqueous inkjet printing, compared to analog printing, was as high as 57% for small-lot production, assuming a large variety of products; surprisingly, the reduction rate remained at 15%, even for long production runs. As the market rushes to embrace digital printing technologies for packaging, these results indicate that implementing inkjet printing using aqueous ink for flexible plastic substrates can reduce waste and decrease the environmental burden, both for short as well as long printing runs.