Eco friendly book printing on recycled paper

Eco friendly book printing means three specific things: the text and cover stock is post consumer recycled and FSC certified, the ink is soy or vegetable based rather than petroleum based, and the paper was bleached without chlorine. Everything else, the binding, the trim size, the run length, is a production decision you make on top of those three. We print books, magazines and booklets that way as standard.

Eco Friendly Printer has been doing this since Greg Barber founded the company in 1990. We are family run. The business started in Northport, New York and is now based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. There is no storefront. Work is quoted and shipped nationwide, and typical turnaround is one to two weeks from artwork approval.

The paper is the decision that matters most

A book is mostly paper by weight, so the stock you pick decides most of the environmental footprint and a fair amount of how the finished book reads and feels.

Recycled content comes in two forms and they are not equivalent. Post consumer waste is paper that was used, collected and pulped again, so buying it pulls material back out of the waste stream. Pre consumer waste is mill trim and offcuts that never reached a reader. Pre consumer content is worth having, but post consumer is the number to ask about. We print on 100 percent post consumer recycled, FSC certified stock, from mills including Sustana EnviroPrint, Monadnock Astrolite PC 100, Neenah Environment and Mohawk Loop.

Chlorine matters too. Conventional bleaching uses chlorine compounds, while processed chlorine free stock uses oxygen based compounds instead. Our papers are chlorine free bleached.

For interiors, uncoated stock is usually the right choice. It takes less processing than coated paper, it is easier to read under lamp light because it does not create glare, and it recycles more cleanly at the end. Covers are a separate spec, normally a heavier weight of the same recycled family so the whole book stays in one material stream.

If you are choosing between two or three interior stocks, ask about paper samples when you request a quote. Text weight and shade are very hard to judge on a screen, and it is worth seeing the stock in person for a book you will keep for years. You can read about each stock on our paper samples page.

Ink, and why soy based ink is standard here

Soy and vegetable based inks replace the petroleum carrier with soybean, linseed or similar oils. Two practical results follow. They release fewer volatile organic compounds as they set, which matters for air quality in the pressroom and around it. They also lift off the fiber more easily during de-inking, so a book printed with them is easier to recycle later. Color holds up well, particularly on uncoated recycled sheets, which is where petroleum inks tend to look muddy.

Digital or offset depends on your run length

Digital printing needs no plates, so setup waste is close to nothing and short runs are economical. It suits first runs, author copies, review copies, reprints of a title that sells slowly and steadily, and anything you expect to revise. Printing what you will actually distribute, rather than a warehouse of copies you hope to sell, is the largest waste reduction available to most publishers.

Offset printing sets up plates once and then runs cheaply per copy, so it recovers its setup cost on longer runs and holds color consistency across thousands of copies. The crossover point depends on page count, trim size and color, which is why we quote each job rather than publish a table. Short runs are available, and minimums vary by product and are listed on each product page.

Binding

Saddle stitching folds the sheets and staples through the spine. It is the simplest and lightest option, it adds almost no material to the book, and it works up to a modest page count. Anything saddle stitched has to be a multiple of four pages, since every sheet carries four.

Perfect binding glues a squared spine to a wrapped cover. It is the standard for trade paperbacks and thicker books, and it gives you a printable spine. Ask any printer what adhesive they use. Water based and biodegradable adhesives are available and keep the book easier to recycle.

Page count, spine bulk and how flat you want the book to open are the three factors that settle the binding choice. Send us the page count and we will tell you what your options are.

Magazines

Magazine printing is similar to book printing, with a regular schedule added. The usual build is a heavier cover on recycled cover stock and a lighter recycled text weight inside, saddle stitched or perfect bound depending on the page count.

Two things are worth deciding early on a periodical. First, settle the paper once and keep it, so issues match on a shelf and you are not re-approving stock every cycle. Second, print to your actual circulation. Overprinting an issue that goes out of date in a month is the most wasteful thing a magazine can do, and a digital run sized to your actual mailing list usually costs less than printing extra copies that come back as returns.

Booklets and short bound work

Booklets cover programs, manuals, catalogs, reports and event handouts. They are almost always saddle stitched, they are almost always a small enough run for digital, and they are the easiest place to see the effect of a few design decisions.

Page order is worth understanding before you build the file. Pages are imposed, meaning they are arranged on the press sheet so that the folded and stapled result reads in sequence. In an eight page booklet, page one sits beside page eight on the sheet. You do not have to do this yourself. Send us reader spreads or single pages and we will impose them, but design in multiples of four so you are not paying for blank leaves.

Design choices that cut cost and waste at the same time

• Use a standard trim size. Custom sizes leave more offcut on the press sheet, which you pay for and then throw away.
• Consider two colors instead of four. On text heavy interiors, a two color scheme looks deliberate and uses less ink.
• Combine jobs. If a book, a bookmark and a promotional card are all in the plan, quoting them together often shares setup and stock.
• Skip laminate you do not need. Plastic film on a cover makes the book harder to recycle. Ask what the alternative is for your finish.
• Set the page count before design is final. Trimming a book from 132 pages to 128 can save a signature.

What to send when you ask for a quote

Send us the trim size, page count, ink coverage inside, quantity, binding preference if you have one, and the date you need copies in hand. That is enough for an accurate price. If you are unsure about any of it, say so and we will work through the options with you. More on our materials and process is on why eco printing, our work for authors and publishers is on printing for publishers and authors, and our full range is at products.

To price your book, magazine or booklet, see book printing for specs, then start your order and we will come back with a quote.