Alcom is always looking for ways to make our environment better. Recycling is the number one way to keep things out of landfills, and that makes our environment better and our expenses lower. We at Alcom look at everything we throw out and ask ourselves can this be reused or recycled?

We presently recycle all of our waste paper and cardboard – last year we recycled 4,355,485 pounds of paper, 24,335 pounds of cardboard and over 5000 pallets.

One of our employees submitted a cost savings idea – why throw out all the steel banding we take off the skids of paper when we can recycle it? Well, because of his idea we recycled 7,346 pounds of steel last year which we received $146.92 that’s not a whole lot, but it would have cost us $231.40 to have it hauled to a landfill.

The same holds true for recycling our used printing plates. We recycled over 45,000 pounds of aluminum which we received almost $21,000, and would have had to pay $1,400 to throw the plates in the trash.

Alcom Printing uses safer and lower VOC and non-hazardous soy-based inks. We have instituted an ink mixing program where we take ink colors we are not using and remix them into new colors needed for current jobs. This has drastically reduced our waste ink stream saving waste hauling charges as well as the cost to purchase new inks for production. This savings is passed onto our customers.

Reducing the toxicity of our chemicals and reducing and reusing as many by-products is keeping the environment safer and is reducing what ends up in landfills. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) create air pollution. VOCs can be found in almost anything from nail polish remover and hair spray to the solvents we use to wash up our presses. The solvents we now use are safer and contain less VOCs than in years past. Alcom has eliminated the use of isopropyl alcohol in the pressroom, which drastically reduced our VOC emissions.

Through the technology of direct to plate we have almost eliminated the use of photographic film greatly reducing our hazardous waste silver.

Light bulbs, computer parts and used batteries all contain hazardous materials that should not end up in a landfill. A recycling company safely disposes of these items, after removing any harmful materials.