Reconomy combines technology and skills to enable businesses to better manage their resources, helping to reduce waste, optimise their supply chains and contribute in a meaningful way towards the circular economy.

While this involves working directly with print companies, Reconomy has also partnered with several leading manufacturers and distributors, supporting its customers with textile waste management. One such partnership is with Soyang Europe, whereby printers using materials from Soyang Europe can responsibly dispose of their waste.

This partnership came about three years ago with the support of Fespa UK. Reconomy was working on sustainability initiatives with Fespa, while Soyang Europe is a long-term member of the association.

The process works with Reconomy providing customers with a baler to prepare their textile waste. Soyang Europe then collects the bales when delivering new products to customers, with the waste taken to its facility in Altham in Lancashire ready for bulk collection and transportation to a recycling facility for processing.

‘It was a perfect fit,’ said Reconomy’s director Jon Hutton. ‘Soyang has always been proactive in wanting to offer their customers, and the wider industry, waste management solutions for their products.

‘Sustainability is a hot topic for several reasons. Brands and consumers are looking down the supply chain for environmental credentials, so it’s therefore a driving factor in how to not only maintain and gain business, but how a printer positions themselves for the long term.’

Mark Mashiter, managing director at Soyang Europe, added, ‘It provides our customers with an outlet for their waste. This works well with local customers when we deliver orders to them; we can bring any textile bales back with us and store them in our yard until they are collected.’

Originally, Reconomy had sourced a solution for recycling PVC banner and polyester fabrics at a UK site, whereby waste was blended with other polymers to produce low grade products. While this process ended when more desirable material became available to the market, a recovery route was soon set up and, with the support of Wheeldon Brothers, waste could now be diverted from landfill to renewable energy.

However, recycling has since been re-established and material is again being used in manufacturing processes. Coupled with its use for renewable energy, all of this is helping work towards a circular economy.

An additional benefit to the service is that Soyang Europe is willing to take other supplier’s waste textiles along with its own. This option is available to customers using their own transport within a set radius of Soyang Europe’s facility and when making deliveries.

‘Soyang Europe wants to be part of the environmental solution and not the problem,’ Jon said. ‘The take-back scheme provides a platform for printers to demonstrate their sustainability by providing customers with an outlet for their recycling waste.

‘Several customers have engaged with Reconomy further and are now collecting their own clients’ end-of-campaign textiles, integrating this with the collection of their materials. All loads are tracked, and Certificates of Recycling can be issued once the material has been processed.’

The work does not stop here for Reconomy, with Mr Hutton saying the company will continue to work with Soyang Europe, Fespa UK and its wider membership base to provide more sustainable solutions to the UK industry. 

‘It’s our aim to continue to be a driving force in educating the industry on the importance of recycling and developing circular economies,’ Mr Hutton said. ‘This, with the continued support of Soyang Europe, will ensure more customers take up this service.’

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Showcased at Fespa 2022 earlier this year, the latest range of products includes bio-based and bio-attributed materials, produced using 100% recycled PES yarn fabric, while the coatings are obtained from non-petrochemical and non-fossil resources.

The Fujifilm Acuity Ultra R2 Printer distributer will offer the new Biotex products alongside a portfolio of other materials from Endutex – including the Print Collection, which features traditional PVC materials up to 5m wide, and the X Collection of PVC-coated products for use in textiles, wallcoverings and flooring work.

Also distributed by Soyang Europe is the Terratex Collection, a range of 100% PVC-free textile and banner materials up to 5m wide, and the Recytex Collection of 100% recyclable banner materials.

Soyang Europe’s managing director Mark Mashiter said, ‘We’re delighted to be offering this latest range of planet-friendly products to our customers. With customers demanding an increasingly sustainable service from their print partners, these new materials will allow print service providers to respond by delivering high-quality, eco-conscious work for multiple applications.’

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Ms Dineen will advise current and prospective Soyang customers and has more than 25 years’ experience in the print industry, working for brands such as EFI and HP.

On joining the manufacturer of digitally printable wide-format and super-wide format media, Ms Dineen said, ‘I’m really excited to be joining the team. One of the main attractions of the role was to be working with a business that has a customer-centric philosophy and a history of account-based marketing. With the synergy of machinery and media being critical to a customer’s success, the draw to join Soyang and to genuinely focus on the long-term relationship was key to my decision. It’s an exciting time and I am sure that we will present as the partner of choice for the industrial end of the market.’

Mark Mashiter, managing director at Soyang Europe, added, ‘With our recent entry into the super-wide format hardware sector, we were keen to strengthen our in-house hardware expertise. Tracy is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced professionals working in the print industry today and we are delighted to have her on board. I’m looking forward to working alongside her to deliver the solutions our customers need to succeed in the modern market.’

Sarah Winterbottom, group sales director at Soyang Europe, said, ‘We are very pleased to have Tracy on board. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the super-wide format field and is a great addition to the growing team.’

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The company, which manufactures a wide range of media for wide- and superwide-format media, was awarded the certification by CarbonQuota after its greenhouse gas emissions were assessed from 1 January to 31 December 2021.

During the 12-month period, Soyang Europe observed 204 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from its Calder House facility on the Altham Industrial Estate in Accrington. To achieve carbon neutrality, a company must commit to emissions reductions and then cancel out carbon emitted by an activity by reducing or removing an equal amount of carbon through verified schemes.

Managing director of Soyang Europe Mark Mashiter said, ‘We have worked extremely hard to implement a number of innovative schemes including minimising our container loading into 40-ft containers to reduce carbon by maximising space, investing in two low emission trucks from Mercedes, and ensuring any carbon we emit from our manufacturing operations is offset.

‘In addition, all our company cars and forklift trucks are electric, our warehouse lighting is LED and we also use solar energy. However, the hard work does not stop here, and we will continue to explore new ways to make the business even more sustainable moving forward.’

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The agreement with Fujifilm is a new venture for Soyang, which is known as a wide-format materials supplier, but is now looking to exploit its expertise to enter into hardware sales. The company has been working with Fujifilm for the last year, testing its materials on the Acuity Ultra R2, which was announced in June 2021, and gauging their suitability for various applications.

Soyang Europe managing director Mark Mashiter commented, ‘We’re a grand format materials specialist and hardware is a new venture for us, but we know the market better than most. We’re already working closely with a huge number of customers in the grand format sector, selling material up to 5m to most users. Our clients already trust us for media, and we’ll earn their trust in dealing in hardware with them as well.’

David Burton, director, Fujifilm Wide Format Inkjet Systems, added, ‘Bringing a partner with the industry knowledge and expertise of Soyang on board is a great vote of confidence in what we have created, and their connections will help us to build sales channels directly to the businesses who most stand to benefit.’

Meanwhile, Papergraphics, which also supplies large-format inkjet print media, plus printers and services for the display graphics and CAD markets, has undergone training to join Roland DG’s approved dealers and is now certified to sell some of Roland’s key product lines. The Crawley, West Sussex-based supplier will begin selling the Roland’s third generation of TrueVIis printer/cutters, including the recently launched VG3-640/540 and the SG3-540/300, aimed at print service providers in the sign and graphics and personalisation markets. Papergraphics will also sell the VersaStudio BN-20 range of desktop inkjet printers, including the BN-20A, launched at Fespa 2021.

‘Papergraphics shares Roland DG’s customer support ethos. Our entire team focuses on helping our customers to find opportunities to grow and diversify their businesses. We are thrilled to be part of the exclusive Roland DG network of UK dealers,’ said Alistair Travis, Business Development manager at Papergraphics.

‘At Roland DG, we know how important it is for our customers to access our innovative machines and experts who understand them. That’s why we are pleased to partner and collaborate with a company that has nearly four decades of experience in the large-format printing industry. This appointment will provide us a scope of customer sentiment on the ground,’ added Rob Goleniowski, head of Sales UK & Ireland at Roland DG EMEA.

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The company, which manufactures and distributes digitally printable wide-format and super wide-format media, described Mr Anstey as ‘an incredibly knowledgeable expert in the wide-format print market’ who ‘brings with him a wealth of experience from his time working with a number of distributors and hardware resellers in the sector.’

In his new role Mr Anstey will work with Soyang Europe customers, helping them to identify the materials they need to succeed in the modern market. He will also play a major role in the company’s ongoing growth plans, with Soyang reporting that demand for its range of products and solutions has significantly increased in recent months.

Speaking about the appointment, Soyang Europe managing director Mark Mashiter commented, ‘We’ve gone from strength to strength as a business – having grown to six separate production lines and holding 1.5million square metres of stock in our 70,000sqft facility – and Mitch’s valuable experience will help us to continue and support this growth.’

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‘It has been a difficult time for our friends and partners over in China in the wake of the Coronavirus,’ said Soyang Europe’s managing director, Mark Mashiter. ‘However, we want to reassure all of our customers that our UK Distribution Centre currently has a stockholding of over 1,500,000sqm of material. Our stocks are controlled through an integrated management system which always factors in factory closures such as Chinese New Year or the European summer shut down, so we always have a buffer of two to three weeks with overstocks on fast running materials in case of spikes in business. It is for this reason and the efficiencies of our Chinese colleagues that our stock levels have not been affected during this difficult time.’

‘We are proactive with our supply chain and have guaranteed container space on ships booked for months in advance,’ Mr Mashiter concluded. ‘It is this forward planning along with stockholding that ensures continuity of product and service.’

Lisa Li, marketing manager at Soyang Technologies, added, ‘Over the past few months, owing to our great government control and medical measures, the industrial chain in China has recovered and our productivity achieved more than 95%. So far, no employee at Soyang Technologies is infected with the virus. You can rest assured that your orders are guaranteed both in time and quality. It has been a tough time for every country that suffers from COVID-19. Sending love and prayers to every one of you.’

Over the coming months Soyang Europe will be focusing on its PVC-free range, with new additions to its environmentally friendly printable textiles display materials, including blockout, backlit and 100% recycled polyesters.

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The agreement aims to provide a solution to the industry’s PVC waste problem by pioneering the use of recycled PVC banner material for a variety of other applications.

The PVC Recycling Membership Scheme has been a long time in the making, as Soyang Europe’s managing director Mark Mashiter explained: ‘The PVC Recycling Scheme is the first step towards a very real recycling solution to the use of PVC banner material, which is widely used within the printing industry, but not currently recyclable.

‘The demand for print providers and their customers to consider the environmental impact of the print they produce is a hot topic and we’ve been in discussions with our customers about the need for this for some years, which until now has seemed unattainable. Now we’re delighted to be able to reveal that, thanks to the dedication and specialist knowledge brought to the table by Blue Castle Group, we can now offer PVC waste recycling to our customers through a one-of-a-kind scheme.’

At Blue Castle’s recycling plant near the company’s head office in Lincolnshire, PVC waste goes through an industrial shredding process to reduce it to a re-processable size. ‘We have extensively tested the PVC banner material, establishing critical elements such as its flash point and chemical properties,’ explained CEO Marie Harley. ‘We’ve explored many options for using the shredded PVC and thanks to strong partner relationships in other sectors, we have developed lines of supply to ensure the processed banner material has viable future uses in a range of industries.’

Print providers and sign makers currently using PVC based substrates are invited to consider the recycling scheme. ‘We would encourage anyone currently offering a PVC banner printing provision to get in touch with  Soyang Europe to discuss how the PVC Recycling Membership Scheme can benefit their printing business,’ said Mr Mashiter.

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The company is now stocking the ST-217 Eclipse blockout material, developed at Soyang Technologies in China. Available in widths up to 3.2m, the textile weighs in at 310gsm and is suiatble as a backing liner for textile tension frame systems, or for backdrop graphics printed with either dye sublimation or UV print technologies

The printable textile provider has also unveiled a new material, ST-603 Polarlight. This is a coated backlit fabric that has been treated to make it print receptive and then coated again on one side with resin, which allows UV printing on the coated side at high resolution. It is made from 100% polyester.

Two existing textiles, ST-216 Nightstar and ST-601 Starlight, have also been made available in 5m widths, making them available for the grand-format exhibition and retail markets. 

Additionally, Soyang has revealed its new PVC-free keder, GreenStrip, for textile tension frame applications. The product has been added in response to demand for products to assist with the finishing of textiles, including those for lightboxes and frames. Its green credentials make it suited to retail textile applications where environmental responsibility is a hot topic.

Last but not least is Transjet Boost sublimation transfer paper. Transjet is coated for digital transfer printing with water-based dye-sub inks, especially suited for high speed printing.

‘We have a number of substrates available for the sublimation transfer market,’ explained managing director Mark Mashiter. ‘The introduction of Transjet transfer paper is extending our portfolio so that our customers can get everything they need under one roof.’

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