Inks and Chemicals — Environmental Challenges

* Its Commerce plant is a 100 percent enclosed printing facility with near-zero fugitive emissions, as certified by the South Coast Air Quality Management District of California.

* A natural gas-fueled cogeneration facility was opened in 1995. The print facility was modified so that all fugitive emissions generated were captured and fed to the cogeneration plant for destruction as an integral part of the electrical power generation process.

* This year, the company is scheduled to install an $800,000 regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) to replace its thermal incinerator pollution control device. The RTO will reduce emissions of nitrogen and carbon oxides from the burning of natural gas fuel by 85 percent from current levels.

* Anderson Lithograph achieved a 24 percent reduction in petroleum-based solvent content of its ink formulations through 2002.

The company's ink initiative is part of its raw materials evaluation and monitoring program, says Anderson Lithograph Marketing Manager Rebecca Dake. This program consists of an annual review of all existing "approved for production use" materials to ensure that they comply with all regulatory requirements. Anderson also maintains Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) for all of the hazardous materials and chemicals utilized within all facets and departments of the plant for complete record keeping, Dake notes.

High Standards

"The scrutiny of this program—as designed by Frank Barnett, director of environment health and safety—has allowed Anderson to meet and, in many cases, exceed the ever-changing air quality, health and safety regulatory requirements on raw material formulations," Dake says. "Anderson's successful low-VOC ink and coatings alternative materials, processes and equipment program are examples of the advances in alternative chemical and raw material formulations that Anderson has been able to achieve over the past years as a result of this program."

Dake adds that all conventional lithographic inks used by Anderson Lithograph utilize soy-based oil ink formulations for both heatset web and sheetfed printing operations. Anderson has been authorized to use the SoySeal trademark on its printing.