Sign of the eco-times: fully-recyclable For Sale and To Let boards

One of the industry’s largest sign makers has been spelling out its environmental credentials on the back of increased concern about the use of plastic and other non-recyclable material.

Steve Gosney, managing director of Kremer Signs, says his company has been manufacturing a recyclable product for around five years, since which time some 2.5m signs have been made on 100 per cent fully-recycled material. 

He says that over 35 years his firm has supplied over 10m painted board posts. To ensure they were environmentally-friendly “we needed to ensure that raw material timber was sourced from kiln-dried Scandinavian softwood, felled from approved renewable forests.”

In addition to using a water-based paint with a high impact, Gosney had to find fluted polypropylene that originated from a recycled source for use on the board itself.

“Our supply partner for fluted propylene has 40 years experience in the research, design and extrusion of the strongest, most hardwearing fluted board. By working together, we have been able to … produce the most robust and durable signs that, at the end of their useful life, are recycled into reusable boxes, packaging, plant containers and plastic pellets, rather than simply going to landfill” he explains.

Kremer Signs also ensured that its digital flatbed printers used a specialised, hardwearing ink which is environmentally friendly [and] requiring no strong chemically based primers usually necessary for adhesion purposes.  

“This ink is also a product unique to Kremer Signs under a sole supply agreement” explains Gosney.

He adds that at one time signs used oil-based paints and printing inks that contained what are now regarded as totally unacceptable levels of lead and toxins - and it’s a sign of the times that eco-friendly considerations have come to the fore in this industry as in others.