Green Up Your Screen Printing for St. Patrick’s Day

Saint Patrick’s Day will land on 17 March in all its Irish glory, and there’s really no better time to embrace all things green – both literally and figuratively! Here are our tips for greening up your screen printing with a few simple changes to your kit.

St Patrick’s Day Tea Towels (printed with Permaset eco-friendly inks) image courtesy of Turquoise Bike

Start with great quality eco fabric paint

If there’s one thing that’s not particularly environmentally friendly about screen printing, it would be the use of plastisol inks that contain PVC and phthalates and require the use of strong and harmful solvents that can find their way into our waterways. These old-school inks are particularly unnecessary when Permaset’s eco fabric paint is readily available without any of the nasties listed above. Plus, it produces clean, vivid and long-lasting results.

Reuse and restretch your screens

The screen reclaiming process is often less damaging with water based inks than plastisol inks, so your screens are more likely to last longer. When you’re printing at large or commercial qualities, the time will inevitably come when you need to replace or restretch your screens. The lowering cost of screens means that many will just purchase new screens instead of reusing their existing ones, but by investing in quality products reusing screens can be a straightforward and cost-effective process. There’s also a number of green restretching systems out on the market that are intended to help you reduce your ecological footprint while saving you money.

Look to vintage and organic clothing

Many printers pursue that pre-loved look of soft vintage cotton, and what better way to achieve it than with pre-loved, soft vintage clothing? Consider upcycling high quality T-shirts and dresses from op shops and printing them with colourful new designs using eco friendly fabric paint. Everyone wins, including the op shop charity you support. If you love the look of new, choose soft organic cotton from an ethical supplier and use water based inks for a lusciously soft hand-feel for your prints.

Shout about your green credentials

There’s no doubt about it – the world is getting greener. Whether you run a print shop or are producing small runs from your garage workshop, it’s worth spreading the word about your green screen printing. This will not only build interest and awareness around your products, it will also encourage other printers to green up their practices and that can only be a good thing.

Shamrock image courtesy of Batton Hollow Winery in West Virginia http://www.battonhollowwinery.com

Embracing eco screen printing certainly doesn’t mean you need to forego any loss of quality, colour or longevity in your prints. Take a look at why screen printers love using our water based inks, and try their eco-friendly benefits for yourself.