Throughout the world, environmental mandates of packaging are increasing. Plastic recycling and compostability are concerns, as are ink migration into packaging. The Asia-Pacific region is no different in these regards, and ink manufacturers are working to meet these standards for their customers.

Hirofumi Ozaki, department manager of T&K Toka’s Overseas Department, said that stricter environmental standards are certainly on the rise.

“Of course, REACH, POPs and other requirements are increasing, and many countries are proceeding to set the law for chemical substances such as chemical inventory,” Ozaki added. “Although there is currently no impact on our ink sales, we feel it is an urgent task to prepare eco-friendly products.”

Katsuya Tanaka, GM – International Operations Department of the Corporate Planning Division of Sakata INX Corp., noted that environmental pollution is a problem in many newly developing countries, and marine plastic problem is becoming a major problem throughout the world.

“Regulations on film packaging have already started in some parts of the region,” Tanaka observed. “As chemical substance control is getting stricter every year in each country, environmental regulations – especially in China – are strengthening at the same level or even tighter as seen in developed countries.”

Ashish Pradhan, president India and Greater China for Siegwerk, reported that the awareness regarding environmental concerns, especially related to packaging, is constantly increasing in the region.

“Countries like China and India are increasingly adopting regulations to limit the use of multilayer packaging and encourage companies to move to a more eco-friendly packaging design focusing on enhanced recyclability of future packaging solutions,” Pradhan noted.

“The environmental mandates throughout the Asia-Pacific region are generally milder than those in the China region,” Masamichi Sota, executive officer, GM Printing Material Products Division, DIC Corporation, said. “While many brand owners are seeking environmentally friendly products, some countries do not yet have the regulations in place to support these demands. India may have plans to implement a toluene-ban for food packaging, but this is delayed for the time being.”

hubergroup’s corporate communications team in Asia reported that customers and converters are insisting on environment certification and best practices. 

They comply with stringent regulatory norms of safety and sustainability, especially in food packaging. 

There is also a strong focus on health and hygiene in workplace and product manufacturing, while government norms on the environment are getting stricter.

Charlie Lee, head of DEERS i/Daihan Ink’s overseas sales department’s team, noted that as one example, governments are putting restrictions on leaflets.

“When it comes to heatset printing, because of government restriction for fewer leaflets, big markets like Walmart and TV home shopping companies don’t print leaflets. I think this is the same for plastic printed products, printed by liquid ink. There are also more and more restrictions to reduce CO2 emission,” Lee observed.

Jason Lee, CEO and president, Kwang Myung Ink Co., Ltd. (KMI), said he expects environmental and compliance regulations to become stricter and more widely enforced around the world.

“KMI already anticipated this trend by adopting the highest green business standards and complying with the most demanding certifications,” said Lee. “We will continue to ensure that these standards are applied across all areas of our business. Furthermore, we constantly seek to increase the share of renewable raw materials in our formulations as, for example, we see an increasing demand for our VOC-free sheetfed and heatset inks and our mineral oil-free coldset inks.”