The market
The global printing market is expected to reach $724 billion by 2014. By then, Asia is projected to become the world's leading market, surpassing North America, which still holds a significant share with 31% of the market. Emerging markets are expected to account for just under 35% of the market within three years. While the value of the US market is expected to decline from $198 billion to $186 billion in sales over the next five years, the same is true for the Japanese, British, German, and French markets. On the other hand, the printing market in China is expected to surge from $59 billion to $98 billion by 2014, representing the only positive factor that will allow the global printing industry to continue its expansion. The only other major exception to the global shift from print to digital is India, which will grow from $16 billion to $23 billion, while Brazil is projected to increase from $15.5 billion to $20.5 billion. The global printing market is dominated by commercial materials, primarily for advertising and sales. This market accounts for nearly half of the global value but is declining due to the strong shift towards digital media. Packaging printing, on the other hand, represents nearly 30% of revenue and is experiencing overall growth, even in North America and Europe. Newspapers represent only 5.5% of the printing industry and are experiencing a rapid decline in sales, much like copy shops and high-speed printers, which once characterized local entrepreneurial ventures in the 1980s and 90s. While newsprint recycling is popular and has reached a record rate of 63%, the most significant gap in printing fiber recovery lies in packaging. For example, only 20% of the 150 billion Tetra Pak liquid cartons currently recycle their cardboard fibers. The remainder, including low-density polyethylene and premium aluminum, is wasted along with inks and coatings. The global printing ink market is projected to reach 3.7 million tons and a value of $16.4 billion by 2015. The primary driver of this growth is the increased demand for printing inks for packaging, with marketers commissioning increasingly vibrant images. While Europe is only the third-largest region globally for printed paper, it is the largest market in terms of ink volume, whereas the United States remains the dominant market in terms of value. By 2015, Europe is expected to become the largest ink market across all metrics. This reflects, among other things, the stringent environmental regulations imposed by European authorities on ink use, setting Europe apart from the inexpensive inks used in emerging economies. Europe also requires the industry to improve the environmental impact of ink disposal. This has stimulated, among other things, interest in vegetable oils rather than petroleum-based oils, even at a higher cost. However, many genetically modified soy inks are still permitted to (and likely to) contain petroleum, regardless of what the label may say.
Innovation
Paper and ink still contain heavy metals such as zinc and copper, although overall levels of these metals have been reduced, so the toxins are present in very small quantities. Newsprint, including colored newsprint and cardboard boxes, is considered safe, even for use as mulch in vegetable gardens. It is the glossy inserts, glossy paper advertisements, magazines, colorful advertisements, and flashy packaging that contain metal oxides. Even worse, this type of printing material is often mixed with plastic coatings to prevent "deinking" before or during use. This complicates subsequent recycling, as removing the ink from the fibers takes longer and requires additional chemicals. While recycling has been very successful and has saved millions of trees, the industry has struggled to find higher-value uses for the recycled fibers or recovered ink. The penetration of new markets by fibers has not yet extended beyond niche applications such as sound insulation, which requires a lower price than recycled cellulose despite its shorter fibers. Pamela Salazar Ocampo graduated with a degree in industrial design in 1999 from the Autonomous University of Manizales, Colombia. She developed a talent for architectural designs using bamboo and, with her sister Carolina, documented the detailed construction techniques that Simon Velez used for the ZERI Pavilion, first at the Recinto de Pensamiento of the Comunale Caldas of the Colombian Coffee Federation, and later at the World Expo in Hanover. Pamela and Carolina's designs were the first in Germany to receive a building permit for a bamboo structure. While working on the ZERI Bamboo Pavilion at the World Expo as a graphic designer coordinating all visual communications, Pamela faced the challenge of producing short stories about the zero-emissions philosophy using low-cost printing. She then studied the printing process, paper production, and ink, and realized that large printing presses always have a dedicated control strip of paper to check print quality and color combinations. She redesigned the graphics to fully utilize all the paper, including the subtractive areas, while also giving value to the control strip and used ink, creating folded booklets. A careful rearrangement of the graphics on the sheet allows for the production of children's stories at the cost of folding alone. A booklet could be made available to every child at a cost of less than a cent per copy.
The first cash flow
The fable "The Strongest Tree in the Forest," written by the author of *The Blue Economy*, was translated into 27 languages and printed in over a million copies, free of charge, using the paper and ink available on the presses that produced information and documentation for visitors to the World's Fair. Strips of paper that were traditionally cut up and recycled were now upcycled into gifts for children, which could be distributed free of charge. It was used as a token of appreciation and even as a fundraising tool, since parents and friends who received this service free of charge were encouraged to give back. Using what one has, generating more value from something considered waste, and providing social benefits are key characteristics of the Blue Economy. The graphic design of the fables is probably one of the first practical experiments and concrete initiatives implemented in the spirit of innovations that create new economic models.
The opportunity
The use of control strips for printing has puzzled graphic designers for years. As long as traditional formats for annual reports are used, the control strip would be considered too small. On the other hand, when graphic design incorporates the strips and even expands the space they occupy—by reducing the bank's annual report or the machine supplier's maintenance manual by a few millimeters on each side—then a comfortable space is created for a small booklet. Recently, the Balearic Islands government (comprising Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera) reached an agreement with the local industrial printer to distribute 36 fables to 92,000 children aged 3 to 10 using the technique devised by Pamela, at a rate of 3.3 million free copies. Governments are suffering from significant cuts. Budgets are under pressure everywhere, and the Ministry of Education is no exception. However, this basic approach of "free story printing" overcomes the typical drawback of reduced public funding, especially in a cash-strapped country like Spain. The Balearic case is expected to spread to other countries where there is a strong demand for educational innovation, where internet access and iPads are not universal, and where this traditional form of communication could well pave the way to inspire millions of children worldwide. While the number of copies printed and distributed may have exceeded 100 million in the last decade, this is just a drop in the ocean compared to the global potential. If major communicators who deliver printed materials to consumers shift from recycling to upcycling their paper waste at the point of printing by using smart graphic design, then a billion children could be exposed to these simple, individual communication tools every day. Of course, to achieve this, we need a new generation of entrepreneurs and graphic engineers.
