There has been more emphasis placed on the environment in virtually every region and industry, and the Asia-Pacific ink industry is no exception. China, the region’s largest country and economy, is tightening regulatory standards, and the rest of the region is following suit. Ink industry executives reported that they are seeing these changes.
 
Shingo Watano, GM – International Operations Department of Sakata INX, observed that marine pollution is one area of deep concern.
 
“Environmental pollution is a problem in many newly developing countries, and marine plastic is becoming a major problem throughout the world,” Watano noted. “Regulations on film packaging have already started in some parts of the region. As chemical substance control is getting stricter every year in each country, environmental regulations especially in China is strengthening at the same level or even tighter as seen in developed countries.”
 
“All stakeholders, including consumer, brand owner, packaging material producer and government agencies, are demonstrating an  ever increasing awareness towards both PSR and environment protection,” Rajesh Bhasin, joint president, Chemicals Business, Uflex, added. This has driven the industry to identify newer solutions to meet these expectations on priority.” 
 
“Triggered by the region’s air pollution problem and recent explosion at a large chemical plant, the regulations on volatile organic compounds and chemical products are becoming stronger,” said Masamichi Sota, executive officer of the Printing Ink Business at DIC Corporation. “Some countries in the region have unique chemical inventory rules, which makes it difficult to import and export printing inks since they are a mixture of a number of chemicals.”
 
“There is progress in the development of legal systems for chemical substance control in each country, and the demand for chemical substance inventory is clearly increasing, and the demand for information provision and development of safe products for human beings and the environment is also increasing,” said Hirofumi Ozaki, president of Toka Ink International (Hong Kong) Ltd.
 
“In the Asia-Pacific region, there’s a heightened awareness and engagement by governments in incorporating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into national development policies,” Takashi Yamauchi, division director, global business division, Toyo Ink Co., Ltd., said. “We expect to see more investment and technological advances in Asia in the eco-friendly materials sector in the coming years.”
 
Jason Lee, president of Kwang Myung Ink Co. Ltd (KMI), said that environmental mandates are “absolutely” increasing throughout the Asia-Pacific region, adding that “it varies country by country.” 
 
“For example, Korea has intensive regulation for chemical products and manufacturers must comply with so-called ‘K-REACH,’ which is similar to the EU REACH,” Lee added “Some other developing countries require less regulation, but sooner or later we expect their governments to impose similar regulations to those of Europe or other developed countries in Asia. And it is a well-known fact that stronger regulatory pressures in China affects the raw materials market for ink manufacturers. Incidentally, printers in this region have less environmental awareness than their Western counterparts. Many of them seem to consider only soy oil-based inks to be environmentally friendly inks, even now. So, the market for advanced environment friendly low migration inks still hasn’t opened up in this region.”