Executive Summary
Though petroleum-based inks seemed to be the most logical choice when first introduced in the 1960s
because their quick drying time enabled printers to run jobs faster and increase overall productivity, the chemicals
they contain have made the publishing industry one of the nation’s most notorious polluters. They contain hazardous
materials ranging from heavy metals used in coloring to petroleum-based solvents used to disperse pigments and
accelerate the drying process. When released into the atmosphere, petrochemicals can contaminate soil and
groundwater and emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air, which contribute to smog formation. Also,
when in vapor form, VOCs can be an irritant for print shop workers.
On November 15, 1990, President George Bush legislated a 15 percent reduction in VOC emission by 1993
to minimize environmental damage. In 1994, Congress passed the Vegetable Ink Printing Act, mandating that
printers under government contracts use vegetable-based inks whenever possible. These legislative acts make
tracking inks’ contributions to VOC pollution necessary.
Vegetable based inks, specifically soy-based inks, may provide the solution to the printing industry’s
environmental, health, and safety concerns without sacrificing quality or reliability. Soy-based inks are very similar
to petroleum-based inks, the only exception being that they contain 20-100 percent soy oil instead of petroleum.
The ink can be used on virtually any lithographic press without modification or special cleaning agents. It is
available in all Pantone® Matching System (PMS) and process colors and formulations.
Soy-based inks are more environmentally friendly than their petroleum-based counterparts in that they
contain minimal VOC levels, are easier to de-ink during recycling processes, can be disposed of efficiently and costeffectively, are more biodegradable, and rely on an abundant and sustainable domestic resource instead of on foreign
oil.
Not only are soy-based inks comparable in quality to petroleum-based inks, but many printers have come to
prefer them because: (1) soybean oil’s transluscence causes pigment to appear brighter, deeper, and richer,
contributing to greater printing mileage; (2) soy based-inks are less likely than petroleum-based inks to build up on
the printing plate, keeping facilities cleaner, (3) they have a “low rub-off” quality; and (4) environmentally
conscious consumers can use the “SoySeal” certification to identify publications that use soy-based inks.
Though soy-based black inks are currently priced at a 25 percent premium over petroleum-based black
inks, colored soy-based inks are already competitively priced. Since soybean oil is such an abundant and available
product, its price is expected to remain fairly constant while petroleum oil’s cost is expected to rise as manufacturers
exhaust this resource further over time. Because of this, black soy-based ink should soon become as competitive as
colored inks, and both should become even moreso within the next decade.
Currently about 100 U.S. manufacturers produce at least one soy ink product, and this number grows larger
each year. Three leading companies are Flint Ink Corporation, Sun Chemical, and Gans Ink and Supply Company.
Also the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a division of the USDA, has developed a printing ink comprised of
100 percent soybean oil and pigment.
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Drawbacks of Petroleum-Based Inks
Publishing is one of America’s largest and most widespread industries. The 1997 Print Market Atlas
estimates that the United States is home to over 50,000 printing companies, employing over one million workers and
annually generating more than $132 million in sales.1
Unfortunately, the publishing industry’s large size also makes it one of the nation’s most notorious
polluters. In 1995, printers released over 41 million pounds of toxic compounds into the atmosphere. 2 The top ten
petrochemical pollutants used in publishing are shown in Figure 1. Most appear in commonly used ink formulations
or cleaning solvents.
Figure 1. Top Ten Polluting Petrochemicals in the Printing Industry
This graph illustrates the top polluting chemicals used in the printing industry, according to the EPA’s 1995
Toxic Release Inventory, most of which were in the form of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs cause
ground-level ozone, leading to smog formation and causing related health hazards.
Printing inks in particular contain hazardous materials ranging from heavy metals used in coloring to
petroleum-based solvents used to disperse pigments and accelerate the drying process. When released into the
atmosphere, heavy metals like barium, copper, and zinc can contaminate soil and groundwater. Inks that contain
petroleum solvents emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air, which contribute to smog formation. Also,
when in vapor form, VOCs can be an irritant for print shop workers. Petroleum-based inks typically contain 30-35
percent VOCs, and over two billion pounds of ink are used by the publishing industry each year, more than half of
which are used in lithographic printing (the most common and widespread printing process that includes
newspapers, books, and magazines). 3
On November 15, 1990, President George Bush legislated extensive updates to the Clean Air Act of 1970.
The new regulations called for a 15 percent reduction in VOC emission by 1993 to minimize environmental damage.
In 1994, Congress passed the Vegetable Ink Printing Act, mandating that printers under government contracts use
2
vegetable-based inks whenever possible. These legislative acts make tracking inks’ contributions to VOC pollution
necessary, motivating many publishers and ink manufacturers to make efforts towards reducing or even eliminating
VOCs from their businesses. 4
Petroleum-based inks seemed to be the most logical choice when first introduced in the 1960s because their
quick drying time enabled printers to run jobs faster and increase overall productivity. But occurrences like the oil
crises of the 1970s and 1980s caused wide and sometimes unpredictable fluctuations in petroleum’s price and
availability. These concerns only become more prominent and worrisome due to this natural resource’s depletion
over time.
Background and Benefits of Soy-Based Inks
Vegetable based inks, specifically soy-based inks, may provide the solution to the printing industry’s
environmental, health, and safety concerns without sacrificing quality or reliability. Vegetable oils like corn,
cottonseed, linseed, rapeseed, safflower, sunflower, soy, and tung have a long history of use in printing inks, but
when press speeds increased, the need for faster drying inks-- either by absorption or evaporation—led ink
manufacturers to replace vegetable-derived oils with petroleum.
In the 1970s the American Newspaper Publisher Association (ANPA) was one of the first organizations to
sponsor research aimed at finding renewable resources as alternatives to petroleum. The research was inspired by
the decade’s events surrounding the Organization of Petroleum Supporting Companies (OPEC), as the ink industry
had been especially sensitive to the market fluctuations the events caused. Understandably, the association’s
research efforts primarily focused on news inks, and findings indicated that soybean oil offered the most benefits,
including enhanced stability, cleaner color development, and increased rub resistance. The ANPA licensed
technology that its researchers had developed to printing ink manufacturers; the first company that agreed to
produce it was the General Printing Ink Division of Sun Chemical Corporation in 1987, and The Gazette in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, was the first to put it to use.5
By the late 1980s, commercial marketing of soy-based news ink formulations had led to broad acceptance
among newspaper publishers.
At the end of its first marketing year in 1988, six newspapers used soy ink. By 1991
50 percent of the nation’s 9,100 magazines and 75 percent of daily newspapers were printed using soy-based inks. 6
Today one-third of America’s 10,000 newspapers and over 90 percent of the nation’s 1,500+ daily newspapers use
soy ink for at least color printing if not entirely. Major soy-based news ink users include: The Denver Post, The Los
Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Boston Globe, Washington Times, and St.
Petersburg (Florida) Times. Also 23 of USA Today’s 37 print sites use soy-based ink. 7
Once soy ink caught on in the newspaper market, manufacturers began to work on developing formulations
for other inks, including sheet-fed, heat-set, cold-set, business forms, and flexographic. In 1989 soy-based ink
began to be used in commercial sheet-fed presses and magazine heat-set presses, and its usage has become even
more widespread since then. Today about one-fourth of America’s 50,000 commercial printers use soy-based ink
regularly. High profile soy-based ink users in the commercial printing market include: SC Johnson Wax, Chicago
3
Board of Trade (CBOT), Minnesota Timberwolves, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, World Wildlife Fund,
Harley-Davidson, and Ford Motor Company. 8
Since Congress’s Vegetable Ink Printing Act mandate passed in 1994, usage of soy-based ink by the U.S.
Government’s printing office has nearly quadrupled. For example, during the 1995 fiscal year, the federal
government used 169,000 pounds of soy and other vegetable-based inks for in-house printing, and an additional two
million pounds of soy-based ink were used by government contract printers. The Congressional Record and Federal
Register are examples of publications printed under this act.
Domestic use of soy-based inks continues to grow and grow each year. Figure 2 shows the current market
percentage captured by soy ink, broken down by particular process. 9
Figure 2: Soy Ink Market Penetration
This chart illustrates where soy inks have penetrated the oil-based printing ink market. Soy ink is
primarily used in lithographic printing processes, including newspapers, books and magazines;
however, soy inks can also be used in packaging, business forms and other commercial printing
applications.
Soy-based ink is also gaining widespread acceptance overseas, especially in Asian countries like Korea,
Japan, and Taiwan. It is also catching on in Europe and Australia. In fact one of Australia’s largest newspapers,
West Australian News, has used soy-based inks for over two years. 10
Soy-based inks are very similar to petroleum-based inks, the only exception being that they contain 20-100
percent soy oil instead of petroleum. The ink can be used on virtually any lithographic press without modification
or special cleaning agents. It is available in all Pantone® Matching System (PMS) and process colors and
formulations. It is not yet available for ballpoint pens or laser printer and photocopier ink cartridges, and its use is
limited in gravure and screen-printing markets.
Soy-based inks are more environmentally friendly than their petroleum-based counterparts in five ways.11
1.
They contain minimal amounts of VOCs; formulations exist that contain none at all.
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2.
Soy-based ink is recycling friendly in that it is more effectively removed during de-inking. Chemicals
used to de-ink paper tend to break down fibers that give paper its strength. Soy-based ink gives up its
bond to paper more readily than petroleum-based ink does, requiring less harsh chemicals and reducing
fiber breakdown. This contributes to higher quality recycled paper and resulting waste that can be
treated more easily, completely, and inexpensively using current methods.
3.
Because petroleum-based ink waste is considered an industrial waste requiring proper disposal, many
producers recycle ink by mixing black ink with unused color inks. Soy-based ink is compatible with
this system, which reduces waste and results in more cost-effective and efficient ink usage.
4.
Though soy-based ink is not 100 percent degradable because of contained pigments and other chemical
additives, it is much moreso than petroleum-based inks. In fact, a formulation’s biodegradability
increases reciprocally to the amount of soybean oil contained in it.
5.
Unlike petroleum, soybean oil is a sustainable, abundant resource grown in the United States, which
helps to reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil.
Not only are soy-based inks comparable in quality to petroleum-based inks, but many printers have come to
prefer them for several reasons, such as the following four benefits:
1.
Soy oils tend to be more translucent than naturally dark and murky petroleum oil. This helps pigment
to appear brighter, deeper, and richer, a feature especially noticeable in bright reds and yellows.
Though this distinction is not as much of an issue for black inks, many printers find significant
improvement in color ink performance when comparing soy-based and petroleum-based ink print runs.
Furthermore a stronger, more vibrant color enables a given amount of soy-based ink to produce more
impressions than the same amount of petroleum-based ink, which can mean a 5-50 percent increase in
transfer efficiency. For example, the Hazardous Waste Research and Information Center (HWRIC)
conducted an evaluative study that found that soy-based inks spread 17 percent further than petroleumbased inks on an identical press run. Overall most printers report a 10-15 percent greater mileage.12
2.
Soy based-inks are less likely than petroleum-based inks to build up on the printing plate, keeping
facilities cleaner. This is the case because soybean oil’s boiling point is significantly higher than
petroleum oil’s, meaning it is less likely to volatize when exposed to high temperatures. Lower
volatilization means ink sticks to the paper instead of transferring to plates or other machine parts.
This characteristic becomes even more beneficial as manufacturers research soy-based ink’s usage in
commercial laser printers and copy machines, in which temperatures soar. Some manufacturers have
even created new formulations labeled “laser proof” with this in mind. 13
3.
Another benefit of soy-based inks is their “low rub-off” quality, meaning ink is less likely to stick to
readers’ fingers. Though this may seem like a minor selling point, a recent Newspaper Association of
America (NAA) study indicates that readers are actually more concerned about ink rub-off than they
are with news coverage.14
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4.
As consumers become more and more environmentally conscious, publishers can benefit from
marketing their soy-based ink usage. In 1993 the American Soybean Association (ASA) developed a
“SoySeal” certification program, which allows any printer, publisher, or other soy-based ink user to
print the SoySeal trademark on publications to tell readers that soy-based inks were used in production.
To include this logo, one must use an ink formulation that contains a certain percentage of soybean oil.
Soy ink may contain other vegetable oils—classified as drying oils—but soybean oil must be the
predominant one, and the other vegetable oils must not exceed the level of soybean oil set forth in the
respective formulation. This amount differs between each type. Figure 3 shows the minimum
percentage for each formulation as well as the SoySeal logo. ASA does not charge a fee for SoySeal
trademark usage, but it is controlled with a one-page user agreement, stating that the seal can be used
only when soy-based ink is used. Completed user agreements are sent to the National Soy Ink
Information Center, which works closely with ASA to monitor trademark usage and keeps a database
of SoySeal licenses.15
Figure 3: Certified Soy-Based Inks
The percentage of soy content for certified soy ink under ASA’s soy seal program varies
depending on the process type.
Ink Type
Heat-set ink
Nonheat-set ink
Forms ink
Black News ink
Color News ink
Sheetfed ink
Flexographic
Required Percentage of Soybean Oil
7% of total formulation weight (TFW)
30% of TFW
40% of TFW
40% of TFW
30% of TFW
18% of TFW
15% of TFW
Comparative Costs
Black news ink for offset lithography consists of two main components—oil and pigment. Because the oil
counts for over 80 percent of the formulation, the ink prices are driven mostly by oil costs. This tends to keep soybased black inks priced at a 25 percent premium over petroleum-based black inks. Currently the average price for
black offset lithography news ink is $0.60 per pound for petroleum-based or $0.80 per pound for soy-based. Thus
the most frequently cited drawback of black soy-based inks is that they currently cost slightly more than their
petroleum-based counterparts.16
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In colored inks, however, pigment is by far the most expensive component. For this reason, colored soybased inks are already competitively with petroleum-based colored inks. This is because the slightly higher cost of
the soybean oil vehicle is offset by a reduced amount of hard resin needed in the colored ink formulation. For
example, a recent price quote for both petroleum-based and soy-based colored offset lithographic news inks was
$2.98-3.57 per pound, bulk rate, depending on the particular color.17
Fortunately this drawback is likely temporary. Soybean oil is a very abundant and available product, so its
price is expected to remain fairly constant. On the other hand, since 1996 petroleum oil’s cost rose 30 percent and is
expected to rise more and more each year as manufacturers exhaust this resource further over time. Because of this,
black soy-based ink should soon become as competitive as colored inks, and both should become even moreso
within the next decade.
The cost difference becomes even less of a concern when one considers the following two notable factors:

Printing with soy-based ink generates less paper waste during print runs, reducing disposal amounts
and costs. This factor becomes especially notable as printers deal with consistently rising paper costs
in the recent past and projected future.

Soy-based ink stands out as the most cost efficient choice given its increased vibrancy and resulting
increase in number of impressions produced. Soy-based ink’s 5-50 percent increase in transfer
efficiency makes for a considerably longer-lasting ink and decreased costs in the long run. 18
Soy-Based Ink Industry Leaders
Currently about 100 U.S. manufacturers produce at least one soy ink product, and this number grows larger
each year.
Flint Ink Corporation (1812-B Mactavish, Richmond, VA 23230, phone 804-353-1231) produces AgriTek®, a line of inks that contain a 40 percent vegetable oil blend of soybean and corn oils. This synergistic blend
optimizes fast-drying properties while maintaining press stability and decorative properties. Pricing for Agri-Tek®
black ink is roughly $4.37 per pound, and color inks range from $5.51-5.71 per pound.
Sun Chemical (3455 West Leigh Street, Richmond, VA 23230, phone 804-355-8068) manufactures the
Naturalith Plus® ink line, which is more than 50 percent vegetable oil. Naturalith Plus® inks are best suited for
sheet-fed offset printing and can be used on a variety of stocks, including folding cartons and coated stock. The
line’s usage can also contribute to increased press mileage. Pricing for Naturalith Plus® inks average at $4.10 per
pound for black and $5.04-5.37 per pound for color.
Gans Ink and Supply Company (1919 West 2300 Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84119, phone 800-4538242) is well-known for its Soy Plus® ink line, which contains less than 1 percent VOC. Soy Plus® contains
mostly soybean oil, but nut oils are also added to enhance setting speed. Pricing runs from $4.20 per pound for
black ink and $6.10-6.45 per pound for color. Gans Ink and Supply Company also was the first to manufacture soybased inks designed for waterless printing under the Dry-Soy® trade name.19
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Also, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a division of the USDA located in Peoria, Illinois, has
developed a printing ink comprised of 100 percent soybean oil and pigment. A patent has been issued for a 100
percent soy news ink, though the ARS is also developing a patent for an all-soy ink for sheet-fed and heat-set
printing. The latter would contain 60 percent soybean oil, eliminating all petroleum oil and resin, the remaining 40
percent to consist of pigments and other ink additives. Though it is not yet ready for licensing, preliminary tests
indicate excellent performance characteristics and reduced drying time. 20
1
1997 Print Market Atlas. Printing Industries of America. 1997.
2
Toxic Release Inventory. Environmental Protection Agency. 1995.
3
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Guide. Minnesota: Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board, 2002.
4
MacFadden, Todd, and Michael P. Vogel. Printing Environmental Technology Fact Sheet. Montana, 1996.
5
Lustig, Theodore. “Soybean Oil Inks: A New Perspective.” Graphic Arts Monthly. 63.12 (1991): 94-97.
6
Ayres, Robert U., Kalpana Rohatgi, and Pradeep Rohatgi. “Market Penetration by Biotechnology,” 1998. United
Nations University Press. 12 Nov. 2003 <http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu24ee/uu24ee08.htm>.
7
National Soy Ink Information Center. Soy Ink Historical Summary. Des Moines, IA, 2003.
8
National Soy Ink Information Center. Soy Ink Historical Summary. Des Moines, IA, 2003.
9
National Printing Ink Research Institute. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University. 1997.
10
National Soy Ink Information Center. Soy Ink Historical Summary. Des Moines, IA, 2003.
11
National Soy Ink Information Center. Soy Ink and the Environment. Des Moines, IA, 2003.
12
MacFadden, Todd, and Michael P. Vogel. Printing Environmental Technology Fact Sheet. Montana, 1996.
13
Carstensen, Michelle. Biochemicals for the Printing Industry: The Carbohydrate Economy. Washington, DC:
Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1997.
14
National Soy Ink Information Center. Promotable Characteristics of Soy Ink. Des Moines, IA, 2003.
15
National Soy Ink Information Center. Nature’s Seal of Approval. Des Moines, IA, 2003.
16
Carstensen, Michelle. Biochemicals for the Printing Industry: The Carbohydrate Economy. Washington, DC:
Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1997.
17
Carstensen, Michelle. Biochemicals for the Printing Industry: The Carbohydrate Economy. Washington, DC:
Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1997.
18
National Soy Ink Information Center. Soy Ink Questions & Answers. Des Moines, IA, 2003.
19
MacFadden, Todd, and Michael P. Vogel. Printing Environmental Technology Fact Sheet. Montana, 1996.
20
Carstensen, Michelle. Biochemicals for the Printing Industry: The Carbohydrate Economy. Washington, DC:
Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1997.
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