Going Green with Eco Papers

Since 2005 we have been the only UK printing website with online ordering dedicated to promoting printed products made entirely from responsibly sourced or 100% recycled paper.

Responsibly sourced paper is the phrase used to indicate that the world's forests are properly managed to maintain and protect wildlife habitat and respect the rights of local communities.  It includes representatives from environmental and social groups, the timber trade, paper industry, forestry profession, indigenous people's organisations, community forestry groups and forest product certification organisations from around the world. If you see this phrase on any wood or paper product it is a guarantee that the raw material has been sourced from a forest grown as a pulp crop and not from protected rainforest areas. If you see the initials FSC® on any paper or wood product you can be certain that it originated from a responsibly managed forest.

We only use paper and board sourced from responsibly managed sources in silk, gloss and 100% recycled finishes for all of our printing. What this means to you is that anything printed by A Local Printer is on paper that has originated from a sustainable crop grown forest.

Our Special Eco Papers

In addition to our recycled and responsibly sourced papers we also have a couple of special eco papers dotted throughout the website.

Vision Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus trees are a fast-growing evergreen species highly efficient in retaining carbon dioxide and countering the greenhouse effect. They are also very efficient in using the water available to them. Without long or deep roots, they regulate transpiration through their leaves, retaining excess water for use in periods of drought, rather like camels. Additionally, research has shown that eucalyptus can be long term cultivated on a site with no undesirable effects, with mineral salts being returned to the land from seasonal falls of leaves and bark. It also provides more pulp that most ‘crop’ grown trees, which translates as more paper being produced from harvesting the same amount of wood as other species, increasing efficiencies and economies.

CupCycle® Paper

CupCycle® paper is the result of the world’s first recycling process dedicated to upcycling single use, take-away cups.

Whilst a staggering 2.5 billion cups are thrown away each year in the UK, the polyethylene coating of coffee cups means that they can only be recycled through specialist facilities. The CupCycling™ process removes the plastic lining allowing 95% of the cup waste to be converted back in to paper. The remaining 5% of the cup, the plastic liner, is used for energy recovery in the production of the recycled paper.

In 2019 around 120 million cups were recycled back to paper, and there is the capacity to recycle 500 million paper cups each year.

CupCycling™, has the potential to revolutionise paper cup recycling forever.

Being responsible and auditable to your customers

Using responsibly sourced paper for your printing is an effective way to demonstrate your commitment to sustainability. Many end users are increasingly seeking out these papers as their pledge to a greener world; we offer them as standard.

Placing your printing with A Local Printer guarantees the following:

• ISO 14001 certified printer since 2006 and committed to continual improvement
• FSC Certified (FSC-C195316) FSC-certified products must be requested when placing an order.
• Every paper and board on our website originates from responsibly managed forests
• All of our papers are Carbon Capture
• All of our litho presses are alcohol free
• Our plate making equipment is chemistry free
• All of our litho inks are vegetable oil based
• All of the toners we use are environmentally friendly
• All of our waste is either recycled or re-used
• All of our waste is collected by certified hazardous waste carriers

More information on our eco-friendly printing can be found in our Green Printing Policy.

Add an eco-friendly claim to your printing

If you want to highlight that your printed product is not only gorgeous but green too, we recommend adding one of the following lines of text:-

‘Printed using vegetable oil based inks on paper originating from responsibly managed forests’
‘Printed using eco-friendly toners on paper originating from responsibly managed forests’
‘Printed on material originating from responsibly managed forests’
Of course you can swap 'responsibly managed forests' for '100% recycled paper' if that is what you have chosen!