Green printing tip no. 36: Is Free Tree Bamboo Good for Printing Books?

We are back today with a new tip on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you information on green printing in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

Today Greg is presenting us with an interesting option of paper for printing books with a tree free secret ingredient: bamboo.

Is Free Tree Bamboo Good for Printing Books?

Tip #36

That is a good question. Many of my clients are afraid of using Tree Free paper.They think this paper will fall apart. Actually, the bamboo paper is strong, and looks like normal paper.

Neenah Paper now carries this line under the umbrella of their Environment line. Their swatch book, which is my favorite, includes 100% post-consumer waste, 80% PCW waste, and 30% PCW, plus Bamboo mixed with Sugar Cane fiber. You can check it out on their website - www.neenahpaper.com. Go to the right column on the homepage (which is actually their virtual swatch book) and click on Environment Papers.

Sugar Cane and Bamboo fiber make up half of the content of this new line. The other half is post-consumer waste paper. So, we have a mixture of 25% Bamboo, 25% Sugar cane, and 50% PCW.

You have a choice of white paper, that looks like normal book paper or two earth colors. A natural color and a beige color.Some of our clients want the paper to look like a real recycled sheet, and some want the paper to look like a normal paper. The paper comes in book weights and cover weights. The white is 96 brightness, which we consider a bright white sheet.

We have these papers in large size sheets in both the text and cover weight. That makes it possible to run large quantity books on our 40” presses. We also can cut the paper to digital sizes, for the On Demand Market.

We offer both small runs digitally, and large runs via offset. Bamboo, mixed with Sugar Cane and PCW is chlorine free, FSC certified, and Wind E certified.

And the price? The price point is higher than our 100% PCW line, and the less expensive, and less environmental lines that contain 30% PCW.

For additional information on bamboo paper, please call Greg Barber at (973) 224-1132, or email greg@gregbarberco.com.

Also, if you have any questions you would like us to address in future tips please email us to info@ecolibris.net .

You can find links to all the tips we published so far on our green printing tips page, which is part of our green printing tools & resources.

You can also find further valuable information on Greg Barber Company's website - http://www.gregbarberco.com.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!

On what paper the invitation to the inauguration is printed?

The inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama is exactly in two weeks and it's going to be an historic and special event. One question that at least I asked myself was on what paper the invitations to the event will be printed? today (thanks to CSR wire) I found the answer!

When it comes to the invitations, the inauguration is about as green as it gets. It will be printed on CLASSIC CREST Papers by Neenah Paper and according to their news release, the environmental profile of the paper is as followed: completely FSC Certified, Green-e Certified as being made with 100 percent renewable energy, made 100 percent Carbon Neutral, and Processed Chlorine Free. Additionally, Recycled 100 Natural White is made from 100 percent post consumer fiber.

Kudos to Neenah Paper! This is great news, especially since every part of the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama is very symbolic, and I'm sure it's no coincidence that the invitations are very eco-friendly.

Neenah Paper claims that CLASSIC CREST Paper is the greenest premium paper in the world. In any case, I'm positive it will be remembered from now on as the paper that was part of an historic moment. Hopefully it will be the beginning of an era when we'll see such the use of green paper not only on historic events but everywhere.

And now all you have to do is just to receive such an invitation..

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!