Printers set for return to stone age

You can’t get blood out of a stone, it’s true; but paper is another matter entirely.

Developed in Taiwan, the specialist paper which is distributed throughout Australia by Network Marketing, has already found a place amongst the local printing industry.

According to Network Marketing’s Melbourne-based sales manager, John Brannan, a large part of the paper’s appeal is its environmental credentials.

“There is an idea that paper is not so environmentally friendly and involves cutting down trees, pollution and a lot of water wastage,” he says.

Not so with Stone-Paper, which boasts to be 100 per cent tree-free. Stone-Paper is a natural product manufactured from calcium carbonate CaC03 powder using proprietary additives as a bonding agent. The calcium carbonate is collected as waste material at existing limestone quarries and is ground up into a fine white chalk powder.  A small quantity of non-toxic resin is then added and together these materials are converted into a printable substrate.

Not surprisingly, the paper has found a fan in one of Melbourne’s green printers, PrintBound.

Mark Tomasini, director, was introduced to the paper six months ago by Network Marketing. After trialling the paper on a range of products, he decided it was a goer.

“It’s certainly an unusual product,” Tomasini admits. “To write on it is beautiful and it has a very different feel: you can also spill something on the paper but still be able to write over it. And it’s tear-resistant.”

These qualities meant that it was an ideal choice for the recent printing of a map for a client.

“Traditionally, this map has always been printed on synthetic plastic as the client doesn’t like it to tear and wants a water-resistant product,” Tomasini recounts. “Stone-Paper was a great alternative for us to be able to use because it compared quite favourably in terms of price, which gave our client the chance to have a greater quantity produced at a high quality.”