Foam Boards

We are an In-Plant, we don't get to do truly interesting stuff very often.

Today we did something interesting..... we cut some foam boards.

Logo's print on Photo-gloss paper at about 30 inches tall each. Spray mounted onto 3/16 inch foam boards and then cut by hand to the final shape.

Printing was about 4 hours total. Mounting and cutting about one more hour.

What if I bring you the paper?

What if I bring you the paper?

We get this question quite often. And there are two answers depending on why you are asking....

The typical answer.... "No thank you, our machines are rather finicky when it comes to what they eat." Or the variant of "We have them on special diets and can't feed them anything not approved by their doctors."

When someone is asking to supply paper in attempt to reduce the cost of a project we still give them the answer above but for a different reason. If you think about it for a moment you will understand too.... the paper is usually the smallest cost of a project.

Lets take a typical color copy project, say 100 flyers. That project will cost $29 to complete based on our current price book and that price includes the paper, the toner, the machine, and staff/shop time. The paper is about 1 cent of the cost of each flyer, the machine is about 23 cents, and the remaining 5 cents covers the cost of the shop (staff, electricity, etc...).

In other words, thank you for the offer of paper but our machines are on strict diets and are only allowed to eat certain papers or they will get sick.

Greenwashing for Earth Day

Yes, Earth Day was a few days ago, I know. The following article is an open letter inspired by Earth Day and is directed to those who 'Greenwash', those who claim that going paperless is somehow better for the Earth...

I’ve had it with my bank and all the other companies that are bashing paper products to promote electronic billing, statements and other e-services.  Yes…I’ve finally lost it.
I have decided to be diplomatic and not name you…but we all know who you are.
To my bank and other providers out there who are doing this:You are damaging my livelihood and you are misleading people with greenwashing so that you can cut costs.  Please be honest.

Read the rest of the letter here:

http://twosidesus.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/my-earth-day-request-cut-the-anti-paper-greenwashing/

E-Waste

Had an interesting article in my mail this morning regarding Electronic Products Wastes, or E-Waste....

Government Technology is reporting via a spiffy infogrpahic how much waste is generated annually from electronic devices like televisions, computers, and cell phones. (its about 2.5 million tons if you want to skip the link).

While I understand the irony involved in telling you about e-waste via a computer blog, I am going to compound that irony by putting in a plug for paper, the most recycled product on the planet currently.

Follow the link, look at the infographic, and think before you toss that broken keyboard in the trash.

Full size graphic here

Paper - some myths and some facts

From the linked article:

Paper comes in many formats – newspapers, magazines, tissue, packaging, books, banknotes and printing papers. Paper is made from a natural, renewable and sustainable resource and boasts the highest recycling rate of any material in the UK.

While the article is from a Consortium in the UK, it is still an interesting read.

And it reminds me of something I used to ask people when they would say paper is dead..... If paper is so dead then you won't mind giving me all of your paper money to chuck in the recycling bin.

Read on, its a good site with great information.

http://www.paper.org.uk/mythsandfacts/

In-Plant versus Ooops

To err is human, to really screw things up takes a committee.

Or, in this case, a Corporation.

R R Donnelley Screws up a job for Google, as reported by In-Plant Graphics. And they point out that an external company has to ultimately answer to their own shareholders more so than to the clients they are printing for.

Not sure if this qualifies as a full point for the In-Plant Team, but I know every In-Plant manager out there is making a copy of this story to put in their files.

Happy (Fiscal) New Year!

Happy Fiscal New Year everyone.