Canbury trials no single-use plastic production
Posted on March 01 2022
1st March 2022
Canbury Press, the independent non-fiction publisher, is to trial a no-plastic production process for a new book on sustainable living.
Going Zero tells the inspirational, true story of how working mum Kate Hughes decided she’d had enough of throwaway culture and plastic packaging and turned her family’s life upside down by going 100% green, including switching car, energy supplier and financial provider. The family of four have no bins in their home in Wellington, Dorset.
To chime with the ethos of the book, Canbury Press has commissioned a small family business in Devon, Short Run Press, to print Going Zero using 100% recycled paper. Using recycled paper instead of new trees uses 30-50% less energy, according to the paper’s manufacturer, Revive. As part of the sustainable production process, there will be no plastic lamination on the paperback’s cover. In addition, no single-use plastic will be used in its production because Short Run Press will pack copies into cardboard boxes for transportation, rather than plastic ‘printers parcels’ – which are standard in book production by the big UK printers.
The UK publishing typically prints books using mixed paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which guarantees it is from sustainably managed forests. Very few books are made using 100% recycled paper. Paper pulp can be re-used between six and eight times before it degrades. Revive paper is manufactured from FSC-certified pulp sources, without the use of optical brightening agents (OBA).
Martin Hickman, managing director of Canbury Press, said: “New FSC-certified paper is widely used in the industry and by us, but we wanted to try to see if we could go further and trial more sustainable production. It’s fitting for Kate Hughes’s book, because she has shown absolutely no compromise in the way she has changed her family’s lifestyle: she’s an inspiration. We’ll be looking to see if we can roll out this experiment. I’m a bit nervous about how booksellers will view the lack of lamination and I want to see what readers say. It would be good to go further.”
Sharon Williams, sales manager for Short Run Press, said: “It has been great to work with Canbury Press. There are other components to a book, not just the paper. We recycle as much as possible, paper, plates, packaging, pallets not to mention chemical free plate making.
“One main thing people ignore when placing work is the method of production, we complete all of our books at our site in Exeter.
“We do quite a lot on the environmental side without making a big issue.”
Going Zero: One Family’s Journey to Zero Waste and a Green Lifestyle
Published on 31st March 2022
£8.99 Paperback
ISBN 9781912454693
For further information and media enquires contact Zoe Bott on Zoebott67@gmail.com