January 2009
Offices and schools are using soy-based ink in their laser printers now.
With innovation from PRC Technologies, soy-based ink derived from soybeans, is now available for laser printers. Soy ink has been on the market for some time but never before for laser printers.
Debe Overhaug, president of PRC Technologies, reports 95% of soybeans are grown for livestock feed. Soybean oil is released during the process as a waste product.
"We're pleased to have found a use for this product," Overhaug said. "It takes about 2 liters of oil to produce the toner in a single printer cartridge and U.S. businesses, schools, institutions and governments consume over 100 million cartridges per year. That means the United States consumes as much as 200 million liters of oil each year. Now every office employee can help reduce dependence on oil every time they put a toner cartridge in their printer," Overhaug says.
Currently, SoyPrint printer consumables are available at prices comparable to brand name versions on the market.
PRC has completed months of extensive testing and reports the print quality and number of pages per cartridge match or exceed brand name versions. Overhaug also noted soy toner does not harm printers. SoyPrint cartridges are manufactured in the U.S. and will be shipped from warehouses all over the country.
SoyPrint cartridges will be easy to identify as each is marked with SoyPrint labels. PRC refers its customers to recycled paper suppliers, recycles all empty cartridges and arranges for businesses to donate unneeded printers instead of discarding them. The SoyPrint Sustainable Printing Program includes a quarterly report to customers reflecting the oil saved and the pounds of heavy plastic recycled by using SoyPrint cartridges are returning them through a free recycling program.
"As we developed this soy cartridge, we realized if we looked at the entire printing process, any office can significantly reduce the environmental impact on our planet," Overhaug said. "This is truly the most environmentally sustainable way to print."
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