There’s a big, shiny, light-grabbing elephant in the room. So, it’s time to talk about it.
Can carton-board packaging with foiling be recycled?
Yes – yes it can.
We were wondering the question ourselves, what, with all this recent uproar about recycling. So we did a little bit of digging. One of our suppliers, Foil Co. has their own little piece to say on the subject – so we thought we’d feature it here.
‘Foilco have researched the effects of foil when printed on paper, cartons and board. The findings indicate that the hot stamping foil content of the printed product has no detrimental effect on the ability to recycle the packaging. The foil content of most printed items is less than the ink’
They went on a little further, just to be doubly, cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die, 100% sure that you can sleep at night..
Is the use of hot stamping foils on packaging environmentally friendly?
We can assure you that, yes, foil stamping is eco-friendly and you should have no concerns about any negative long-term effects that your designs will have on the environment.
• Foil stamping is a totally dry, solvent free process.
• Paper & board that has been foil stamped can be recycled.
• To be absolutely sure, two independent studies were conducted to determine the biodegradability and the recyclability of foil stamped paper.
• Foil has no visible effects in slowing down the rate of biodegradation of the paper & board.
• Foil also does not affect the repulpability of the paper substrate. A study carried out by FSEA/PIRA has found that the foil, like ink, can be successfully removed by the flotation de-inking process with no particles remaining once the paper was re-pulped
So there you have it folks, confirmed by our supplier Foil Co, if you use foil on your packaging, you’re not a terrible person doing terrible things to the environment and we’re proud of you.
