Metrogreenbusiness.com caught up with Baldev Duggal and Chhaya Bhanti to discuss how Duggal Eco Imaging is leading the way in environmentally-friendly printing.
How does sustainability play a role in your business?
Baldev Duggal: We have made a major commitment we call the Duggal Green Initiative. "Eco" doesn't mean we have to go downhill. “Eco” means that we can still have quality, and yet we don't have to ruin the environment or create more trash. We don't have all of the solutions, but we do have enough solutions to get things going. For example, EcoFineArt is a fabric made from discarded scraps of polyester. It's a beautiful product that uses 30 percent post-consumer and 70 percent post-manufacturer recycled material. It does not contain PVC, heavy metals, or formaldehyde, and it is of a very high-quality. We also use inks that have water-based pigments. Most pigments are solvent-based, whereas ours are water-based. They are also of a very high quality and will last outdoors.
How did you go about implementing this initiative?
Chhaya Bhanti: It's a comprehensive initiative which looks at every single ingredient in the production process, including the inks and materials as well as the actual facility where our products are produced. The first stage involved analyzing the product lines and seeing where it was possible to introduce alternatives to PVC, vinyls, and toxin-based materials. After a thorough research of several months, we were able to create vinyls, fabrics, and papers that are biodegradable. They are all 80 to 90 percent biodegradable, and in some cases they are 100 percent biodegradable. That's a significant step for this industry because when you look at how the PVC-based vinyls are driving the market, they basically go straight to landfills. Even if they are recycled, they still have an end-of-the-pipe kind of life.
Baldev Duggal: Exactly. What good is producing an eco-friendly product if people still end up putting them into the landfills? We've taken another step by introducing a recycling service that will pick up used materials to make sure they get recycled. The program is available through the number (212) RECYCLE, which will be up and running in about a month. By recycling, we take care of the complete cycle from the beginning to the end.
Chhaya Bhanti: So, for materials that are non-biodegradable, we figure out how we can bring them back into the production processes. We are transitioning to new materials and then setting a real vision for having a facility in Brooklyn which will be built and designed according to the principles of sustainability.
Can the public access information about the contents of your products?
Chhaya Bhanti: If you go to our website, www.duggalecoimaging.com, it actually gives you the details. We're pretty transparent about the entire process. It's laid bare for people to see every detail of the material that we put out there. So if it's, let's say, our EcoCanvas; that's PVC-, phthalate-, and VOC-free. The production process utilizes 50 percent fewer raw materials, 83 percent less acid gas, and saves 80 percent of energy used on the production line. All of those metrics are actually made visible and transparent to clients so they know exactly what it is they're getting.
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