Have any of you ever tried to print eco-stickers?  That is, stickers that are ecologically friendly but that can still withstand the elements.  

Now there is the rub…  durable vs eco-friendly.  One characteristic of eco-friendly is biodegradable, right?  Well, most people don’t want their bumper sticker biodegrading on the back of their car.  So what do you do?  Well, Big Tree needed to print up some new stickers so we looked at some of the options.

The first thing we found was EarthFirst PLA material, a corn-based alternative to the commonly used petroleum-based label material.  This seemed interesting but would it last on a car?  It turns out the bumper sticker would need to be laminated which makes it not “earth friendly” and the inks often used for outdoor applications are lightfast inks which are different from the inks used for earth friendly labels.  So this is more intended to be used as a label on products, not as a bumper sticker.

We then found other companies that went with conventional (the new dirty word) vinyl material but used a variety of more environmentally friendly inks (such as those vegetable based inks low in VOCs (volatile organic compounds)).  

We then found this printer: www.thinkvariable.com.  They had a variety of options ranging from totally eco to partly eco.  This is what we decided to do:

• Bumper stickers (need to be very durable in outdoor conditions):  face stock is printed on a treeless paper made from limestone and coated with a non-petroleum based film lamination made with corn oil.  The way this works is that the HDPE (high density poly-ethylene) which makes up a conventional sticker is used as the binding agent for the limestone.  So while this is a not a totally green sticker, it is 90% limestone and 10% HDPE, it provides a good balance between green and durable.  We haven’t tested these for long yet but they look indestructible.  This run of stickers is apparently the first of its kind!    

• Our “Big Tree Renewable Energy” stickers (primarily used in indoor applications):  face stock is printed on a treeless paper made from renewable plant fiber. The adhesive is a biodegradable white glue and the release liner is a 100% reclaimed liner which at the end of life is converted into fuel pellets.  You can find out more at www.thinkvariable.com/ecopure <http://www.thinkvariable.com/ecopure>.  On the picture below, a scan of the actual sticker, note how there are subtle bits of plant fiber that can be seen.  For our applications, a perfect, earthy look to our sticker.  The scan is not quite true to color, the background is not as dark but is still slightly tan.