Since I work with a lot of ink and paper, I was curious to find out more about soy based inks. I wanted to find out why everyone isn’t using them if they are more environmentally friendly than petroleum based inks. I went to Wikipedia to do some searching and found my answers.
There are significantly reduced volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soy ink. This minimizes toxic pollution, therefore reducing air pollution. Soy ink is used on over 95% of American newspapers that have a large circulation. Newspapers also like using soy ink because it provides very vivid colors. The reason publications like magazines do not use soy ink is because it takes a very long time to dry. Heavy or slick paper does not let the ink absorb into it like thin newspaper does.
I hope that the technology to dry soy ink more quickly is invented soon, because soy based inks are a great way to be green.
