Blue Angel
The Blue Angel has been the German government’s environmental label for over 40 years. Independent and credible, it sets demanding standards for environmentally friendly products and services and is the orientation for sustainable purchasing. With the Blue Angel for printed products, all materials used to manufacture the product are considered. The production process requires energy and resources such as paper and ink.
The printing process and machine cleaning can lead to emissions of volatile organic solvents that contribute to ozone formation “summer smog”. In an ecological system comparison, paper products made from recovered paper come off much better in terms of resource consumption, wastewater pollution, water and energy consumption than paper products with a predominantly primary fibre content. In the production of printed products, the use of paper with a high proportion of recycled paper thus contributes to the conservation of resources, especially the forest ecosystem, and to the reduction of waste.
In addition, a printed product should enable the recycling of the paper fibres it contains by using suitable inks, varnishes and adhesives. Process optimisation can reduce energy consumption, paper waste, air and water emissions in the printing process. Printed products with the Blue Angel are thus a more environmentally friendly alternative to conventional printed products on the market.