Inks to base of water and plastic recycled, sustainable alternatives to the commercial stock exchanges

The main environingingmental impacts of the commercial stock exchanges are directly related with the plastic materials, the inks, the number of times that uses the product and the management of his waste. The European project Ecoflexobag, developed in the frame of the program Life+2011 of the EU, pretends to face up to these challenges. The study, promoted by the technology centres Aido and Aimplas (Spain), Dienstencentrum (Holland), Enviros (Czech Republic) and VTT (Finland), develops technical recommendations and tools for the design, impressesion and control of the processes of production of commercial plastic bags.

Ecoflexobag Concluded the June happened a series of studies related with the tendencies of production and consumption of stock exchanges and the behaviour of inks and plastic supports more sustainable, of which extracted the following conclusions:

• The proportion of biodegradable stock exchanges is small and the tendency is that it do not increase significantly during the next years.
• The main tendencies are the increase of the use of plastic recycled in the manufacture of stock exchanges and the increase of the proportion of reusable stock exchanges in front of the ones of an alone use.
• The inks in basic water are the only viable alternative to the inks in solvent base. They are available for the printers and prepared to have a good behaviour.

At present, the Consortium of the project is working in the development of recommendations in the field of the ecodiseño, impressesion and control of the process, that allow the reduction of the impact of the commercial stock exchanges through his Cycle of Life.