GreenGrafX - Sustainable Photo Paper by Sihl
You know what it's like: a perfect moment captured in a photo as a memento. Art that not only beautifies your home or rooms in surgeries, hotels or restaurants, but also creates a feel-good atmosphere. Modern trade fair stands, events or sales rooms that catch the eye and attract prospective customers with effective advertising posters and wall decorations.
Photos - beautiful, but bad for the environment?
Photo and poster papers are needed for all these applications. Whether matt or glossy, they bring out the best in every motif and turn pictures into real eye-catchers. And what happens if a motif no longer appeals or fits? It is quickly and easily replaced. But it is precisely this feature, which is so appreciated by many, that creates an environmental problem: a large amount of non-recyclable plastic waste.
Plastic? It's called photo PAPER!
Plastic is always and everywhere in our everyday lives, even where we wouldn't expect it at first glance - e.g. in photo paper. Did you know that all conventional photo paper is coated with polyethylene (PE), meaning plastic, on the top and bottom? And once applied, it can no longer be separated from the paper base. This means that it cannot be disposed of in the waste paper cycle.
But what is the plastic in photo paper used for? The PE film on the top side ensures a particularly smooth surface as a prerequisite for the coating and as protection against the paper absorbing the ink. The backing film ensures that the paper is flat and thus improves its printing properties.
If photographic paper is dissolved in a water suspension, it becomes very clear that conventional photo paper cannot be recycled: PE-film-coated photo paper cannot break down into its original components. The plastic it contains creates a “spaghetti” shape. In contrast, PE-free photo paper immediately begins to form a homogeneous new layer of paper.
?
What does this mean for the environment?
We have a long-term environmental problem with classic photo paper that is largely unknown to the end consumer! That is why we declare on: The global photo paper market today consists of approximately 50 million square meters. On average, 45 g of polyethylene is used for 1 m2 of photo paper. A simple extrapolation can be used to determine an annual consumption of 2,250 tons of non-recyclable PE in the photographic paper industry. For comparison: this is equivalent to the weight of 3,000 African elephants.
?
How does Sihl solve this problem?
Our Research & Development department has been working intensively on this issue and, together with our product experts, has finally succeeded in developing an innovative, environmentally friendly photo paper: our GreenGrafX Photo Paper 220. It is the first fully recyclable photo paper on the market that can replace PE-coated material 1:1. Same quality, same colour brilliance, same gloss - but much less plastic, so that it is certified according to the PTS RH 021/97 Category II method commonly used in the recycling environment.
Our secret is the finishing with a special barrier and the microporous coating, which replaces the PE film but retains its important properties for photo printing. Less plastic, more sustainability: that is our promise.
GreenGrafX Photo Paper also offers further environmental benefits in direct comparison with PE-coated photo paper of the same weight:
Users and customers also benefit from a number of advantages: