ARTHUR WOOD -
A passion for the natural world
Arthur Wood founded St Andrews Press in 1952. He was a man who loved the countryside and in 1964 he built his own house out of cedar wood, and cultivated a huge semi self-sustaining vegetable patch. Since his time, much has changed for the world’s forests. In recent years, it must be said that the print industry in the developed world has taken responsible steps to ensure that paper used for printing is largely sourced from sustainable forests. However, many token efforts are made to care for our environment, employed as more of a marketing tool than genuine care for the world around us.
At St Andrews Press, we are committed to thinking like Arthur. And so we thought we’d tell you how we strive to do our bit for the environment as we imagine Arthur may have told it, were he still working with us today!
ARTHUR’S STORY
MY MORNING STARTS….
In the early hours, I wake and head to work to begin guillotining all the printing jobs that were printed yesterday, ready for delivery. As I trim the finished jobs, I ensure the off-cuts are emptied into recycling bins supplied by local firm, Perry’s Recycling who collect all our paper and cardboard waste. My recycled paper and board comes back to me as Greyboard to use in packaging and to use when I guillotine our printing jobs to ensure the printed paper is not marked. The best thing is that I can recycle the Greyboard too!
PACKING THE JOBS READY FOR CUSTOMERS…
I want my print to packaged in a way that is robust and neat but that doesn’t mean I have to use polypropylene tape and glues. I only use brown recycled wrapping papers and recyclable brown adhesive tape which not only looks smart, but more importantly enables our customers to throw their empty box straight into their cardboard recycling (the tape is even compostable!). If my box has a little bit of empty space I use biodegradable bubble wrap (which breaks down into biomass within 6-18 months) to fill the gaps.
TIME FOR A CUP OF TEA…
All the jobs are trimmed and packed, and so I feel that I have earned my mid-morning cup of tea with a splash of milk and, of course, a Rich Tea biscuit! Plastic and all other recyclable waste created by my staff and I is taken to the local recycling centre on a regular basis.
GETTING MY HANDS DIRTY ON THE PRESS…
Now for the part I most enjoy about my working day: running our printing presses, some digital and which use toner, and the others litho which use inks. It is very important to me and my team that our toner is recyclable therefore not contaminating the papers we use, and that our inks are vegetable based. Other consumables such as printing plates are recycled and Ricoh, our digital printer supplier, collect and refill our waste toner bottles.
FINALLY…
We source paper from sustainably managed forests approved by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC® C004309), or from our Nautilus range of 100% recycled paper and boards. Sustainably managed forests really do what they say on the tin; in fact, they plant more trees than are felled with the aim to go some way to restocking our planet’s resources. All of our FSC®-certified products available upon request.
FIND OUT MORE….
Please use any of the links to find out more about the green credentials of the products supplier we use: