Eco-designed product for an environmental friendly ink

The environmental impact of both a product and a process is generally evaluated by an approach “from bottom to up” in which the management of the environmental damage of the product during its life cycle is applied. However, the product sustainability should be preventive getting-in-ready new processes which is able to avoid the environment damage taking substantial changes of both the product and the process. The eco-design represents a fundamental tool for this approach in which each step for the realization of a product is studied using a concept of sustainability. In this context we have development of a new ink for office inkjet technology with a reduced environmental impact using an eco-design approach. The life cycle of the product considered the three main production lines characterizing the printed paper in office such as: ink production, cartridge production and paper production including their recoveries and reuses. LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) was used to identify the critical points on which an eco-design of the product was developed.