Eco friendly signage and recycled paper signs

Eco friendly signage starts with the substrate. Most signs and banners are printed on PVC or vinyl, which cannot be recycled in practice and sits in landfill for decades. Paper and board signs printed on 100% recycled, FSC certified stock with soy based inks can be recycled with the rest of your paper, and for indoor and short term outdoor use they do the same job.

We print signs, posters and banners on recycled stock and ship nationwide. Typical turnaround is 1 to 2 weeks from artwork approval.

Match the material to the life of the sign

A common mistake in signage is buying for a lifespan you do not need. A sign for a three day trade show does not need a substrate rated for ten years outdoors, and choosing one means the sign stays in a landfill long after the event is over.

• Days to weeks, indoors. Use recycled poster stock or a heavier recycled cover weight. It is recyclable, light to ship and inexpensive to reprint when the message changes.
• Weeks to months, indoors. Use recycled board. It is rigid enough to stand in an easel or mount flat to a wall, and it is still paper at the end of its life.
• Outdoors, short term. Board does not hold up well in weather. Keep the sign under cover or behind glass, or treat it as a short life piece and plan to reprint it.
• Outdoors, long term. Paper is not the right material. If a sign has to last a full season of sun and rain, tell us and we will talk through what will hold up rather than sell you a board that will not.

For large format work, 100% post consumer waste eco board handles sizes up to four feet square. We have printed twelve of those for a single event, and the finished panels held their shape and their color over the run of the event.

Recycled paper signs indoors

The most common use for a recycled paper sign is labeling. Bin signs and container labels tell people what goes where in offices, break rooms, warehouses and factories. They are small and they get replaced often, and printing them on recycled paper keeps the sign consistent with the recycling message it carries.

Recycled stock also works for wayfinding, department and door signs, event posters, price and menu boards, and anything else that hangs at eye level and changes more than once a year.

Common indoor formats:

• Wall signs at roughly letter size up to poster size, mounted flat.
• Floor graphics for directing foot traffic. These need an adhesive rated for the floor and a surface that will not become a slip hazard, so tell us the flooring. See floor stickers.
• Labels and stickers for bins, shelves, equipment and containers. See labels and stickers.
• Posters and banners for events, storefronts and trade show tables. See signs and banners and our page on printing for events and trade shows.

Ink and coating

We use soy based inks, which are made from a renewable base rather than petroleum, emit fewer volatile organic compounds than conventional ink, and lift more cleanly during recycling. Our stock is bleached without chlorine.

Consider carefully whether a sign needs lamination. Lamination and heavy plastic coatings extend the life of a sign, but they bond to the fiber and make the sign unrecyclable. On a sign you will keep for years, that tradeoff may be worth it. On a sign used for only a few months, it usually is not.

Mounting options that keep signs recyclable

How a sign attaches matters as much as what it is printed on, because the mounting hardware is often what makes an otherwise recyclable sign a problem.

• Self adhesive backing is the simplest for labels and small wall signs. It is easy to apply and easy to replace.
• Drilled holes and screws or zip ties keep the sign and the hardware separable, which is the best option for recycling. Add grommets if the sign is a banner that will hang in wind.
• Magnetic backing suits anything that moves around a facility and mounts to steel. It will not stick to stainless steel or aluminum.
• Easels, clips and rail systems hold a board sign without adhesive at all, and let you swap the printed panel without touching the frame.

Design signs you can reuse

Reusing a sign is better for the environment than reprinting it, and a few design decisions make reuse possible.

Separate the permanent information from the information that changes. Put your logo, colors and the fixed structure on a durable header or frame, and put dates, prices and offers on an inexpensive insert panel that swaps out. You then reprint the small piece instead of the whole sign.

Keep dated content off the main panel. A sign that shows the year cannot be used next year.

Standardize your sizes. If every sign in the building is one of three formats, frames and mounts can be reused, and reorders cost less.

Consider whether the message needs to be printed at all. A promotion that changes weekly is better handled on a screen you already own. Print works best for information that does not change often.

Reading recycling symbols on signage

Two symbols come up often, and they do not mean the same thing.

The Mobius loop, the triangle of three chasing arrows, means the item is recyclable. The same loop with a percentage inside it means the item contains that much recycled content. A sign can carry one and not the other.

Some paper cannot be recycled at all, and it is worth knowing which:

• Paper with a plastic or wax coating, because the coating cannot be separated from the fiber.
• Laminated paper, for the same reason.
• Paper contaminated with food or grease, which spoils the batch.

If your signage promotes recycling, the sign itself should be recyclable.

Ordering

Short runs are available. Minimums vary by product and are listed on each product page. You can read about our stocks on the paper samples page, and you can ask about paper samples when you request a quote. Samples are useful if you are deciding between a board and a poster weight for the same job.

Tell us the size, the quantity, where the sign will hang and how long it needs to last, and we will come back with substrate options and a price. Start at signs and banners or send the job through start your order.