Alternate Papers
Besides recycled paper, you may consider producing your work on paper made of alternate source materials instead of trees. Alternate paper stocks available in China include papers made from Bamboo, Sugar Cane, Reed and stone.

Sustainable Forestry Certification
Sustainable forestry practice is very important in China, due to the limited natural forestry resources in the country. Most of the paper used by China Printing Solutions has a high or total pulp content originating from sustainable forestry initiatives. However, adoption of forestry certification initiatives like FSC and PEFC is limited due to a fragmented supply chain and a competing certification scheme in the China Forestry Certification Council (CFCC), hence obtaining FSC/PEFC certified paper can be challenging. Here again, it is possible to import FSC or PEFC certified paper, time and cost willing.

Chlorine Free Paper
Chlorine bleaching of pulp used to make paper has been proven to produce cancer causing dioxins in the runoff effluent of paper mills. For the uninitiated, there are three types of “chlorine free” paper:

• Totally Chlorine Free (TCF)—a designation used for paper made from virgin fiber, indicating that no chlorine or chlorine containing compounds were used as bleaching agents in making the paper. TCF paper may be unbleached, or bleached with Oxygen, Ozone or Hydrogen Peroxide, and is the most environmentally friendly chlorine-free paper, but produces pulps which may be weaker, less bright, of lower yield, and more costly than ECF pulps or normally bleached pulps.

• Processed Chlorine Free (PCF)—a designation for recycled papers meaning that, while chlorine may have been used in creating the original paper stock, the recovered feedstock used to make the recycled pulp has not been bleached with Chlorine.

• Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF)—a type of bleaching where chlorine dioxide (CIO2) is used, but not elemental (gaseous) Chlorine (CI), resulting in little or no dioxin, but which may still produce toxic chlorinated organic compounds like chloroform.
All three types of chlorine free bleaching are used in China. Please enquire if you wish to ensure your project is produced on paper created by a particular type of chlorine free paper.

Inks and Coatings

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's), often present in printing inks and coatings, can evaporate into the atmosphere causing illness, air pollution, and ozone depletion, contributing to global warming. Some inks and coatings are available in low VOC or VOC-free varieties. Please let us know in advance if you prefer to use Low-VOC materials.

One well known low-VOC ink is Soy ink, used more and more frequently these days. Because it is vegetable, not petroleum based, it is has a low VOC impact. In addition, soy inks may produce brighter, more vibrant colors and make recycling more convenient. Soy inks do take longer to dry, and are known as a result to produce smears, ghosting or other problems on coated papers, so we recommend only using Soy inks with non-coated papers.

Case Study:
Unseen Lithuania Book of Photographs with VIP Silk Box

Client: Unseen Pictures

Project Name: Unseen Lithuania

Description: Unseen Lithuania is an award winning collection of gorgeous aerial photographs from all over the Baltic nation of Lithuania, produced on sustainable source paper in 6 different language versions. Unseen Lithuania Millennium Edition is a hardback book with dust cover, 4 gatefolds, a silk covered box with Lenticular faceplate, holographic stickers and a purpose built corrugated mailer box. Extensive color retouching was executed to photographs using Color profiles to match the printed image to the original experience of the photography. CPS also proposed and designed the VIP version silk box, a detachable product registration mailer form, wrote a code to generate 55,000 unique serial numbers and designed a custom corrugated mailer box.

Meet the Staff:
Aaron Landis I General Manager

Originally from the USA and with a degree in the Graphic Arts from New York University, Aaron has a professional background in printing, publishing and packaging spanning nearly 2 decades.

With a career history including roles in Production and Marketing Communications for divisions of Reader’s Digest Publications, Time Inc and McGraw-Hill, Aaron founded CPS in 1998 and has lived and worked in Greater China for 14 years in total. He prides himself on being a stickler for detail with high service values and loves to help clients explore the use of new materials, solve technical problems or learn more about the printing process. Although mostly cooped up in an office these days, Aaron is still quick to jump behind the wheel of a design workstation and still loves the smell of printing ink.

His interests are non-fiction, thai boxing, paintball and jazz. He speaks fluent English and Mandarin.

Aaron can be reached at alandis@chinaprintingsolutions.com.