So we’re already used to the idea of green printing in the form of ink cartridges and building materials made from recycled consumables. But have you thought about the actual ingredients that go into laser toner? You may think of oil primarily as fuel for cars, but it’s also an important ingredient in making toner powder. As a result, stray particles that float around in your home or office may have a negative effect on air quality and health. In an attempt to address these issues, PRC Technologies has introduced SoyPrint as the first toner cartridge to replace oil with soy. The manufacturer reports that price, print quality, and cartridge yield are all comparable with traditional petroleum-based toner cartridges.

Besides the reduction in emissions and reportedly competitive price and performance, soy toner cartridges have a couple other eco-friendly advantages over petroleum-based toner. First off, while oil supplies may be dwindling at an alarming rate, soy is a renewable resource. In addition, when it comes to recycling paper, the removal process for soy-based toner uses up a lot less energy than the process for oil-based consumables. Studies indicate that the US alone uses nearly 400 million pounds of petroleum byproducts per year through printing and copying, so you can imagine the energy savings and added incentive to recycle if you replaced petroleum with soy.

So does the soy printing movement have any legs at this point? While SoyPrint claims to be the first soy toner on the consumer market, the United Soybean Board notes that newspapers across the nation have used soy ink for nearly two decades, and more than 90% of the US’s daily newspapers currently use this eco-friendly material. SoyPrint is just one example of a growing trend that’s developed some serious staying power - look for more homes and businesses to take a closer look at this green printing alternative in the years to come.