C241 - Manor House Press Ltd - Printing - Wellington
Region
Summary
The installation of a press with automatic blanket wash has provided savings
of $8000 annually, compared to the manual blanket wash method of the old
press. The recovery of silver from spent developer and exposed film has led
to annual savings of $360. The recycling of paper currently saves $2400 annually,
mainly in disposal costs.
Business Profile
Manor House Press is a sheet-fed offset printer with 20 staff. Pre-press is
produced on-site.
Type(s) of Project
Material reuse, recycling and substitution, and waste reduction.
Reasons for Project
Reason for Project To improve the working environment, and reduce costs.
The Project
Cleaning Solutions
A recently installed press with an automatic roller and blanket wash uses a
solvent solution which is more environmentally friendly but twice as expensive
as that used previously. Solvent usage has increased by 30%. The new solvent,
however, is not as harsh on the rollers and thus requires much less maintenance.
The service time has been reduced by two hours each day, enabling an increase
in productivity of 11%. MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) for cleansing has been
replaced by water miscible petroleum spirit or aliphatic hydrocarbon based
solvents, except for very stubborn jobs. Used solvents are not recycled.
Despite the greater cost of the new solvent solution, the automatic press
has led to annual savings of $8000. The working environment has always been
well ventilated, but these changes ensure a more pleasant, and even a safer,
environment.
Silver Recovery
Photographic artwork is developed on-site. Silver is recovered from spent developer
solution using a discontinuous recovery unit. Exposed film is recycled if
it still contains a reasonable proportion of silver (degree of 'blackness').
The recovery unit cost $400 a few years back and generates a saving of $300
annually, i.e. a payback of 1 year. The revenue from black film is small
($60).
Paper Recycling
Waste paper (other than paper composites) has always been recycled even though
there are periods when they generate no revenue. At present an average of
250m3 is recycled each year. Recycling generates a revenue of $600 and saves
$1800 in disposal costs, i.e. $2400 in total. About 16m3 of mixed waste are
landfilled monthly at a cost of around $130/month.
For additional information contact:
Plant Manager (Rodney Haste)
Manor House Press Ltd
cnr Jackson and Victoria Sts
Petone Phone: (04) 568 6071
Fax: (04) 568 7282
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