RESEARCH PROPOSAL

TITLE The Impact of Pre-Printing Waste to the Overall Cost of Printing Industry, Based on Mithuru Printers (PVT) Ltd

1.0

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUNG OF THE COMPANY

1.2 PRODUCT & SERVICES

1.3 PERFORMANCE

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1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The problem of spoilage and waste control in the printing industry in Sri Lanka cannot be overemphasized. It had been discussed in printers association. Observation showed that waste created in printing business in the cities of Colombo and Outstation was enormous-a lot of papers, inks, darkroom chemicals, films, and plates. The practice has become a normal trend for the employees and management of these printing businesses, without realizing the effect waste poses on the customers, the company, the environment, and the Sri Lankan society as a whole. The quantity of waste created affects the production cost, and its disposal poses a threat to the environment. In Sri Lanka, the disposal of printing waste doesnt cost printing businesses financially. Even though there are laws governing the proper disposal of waste, these laws are not enforced. Since there are no strict penalties for improper disposal of waste and spoilage, printing businesses dispose of their waste anywayin gutters, in dumpsters, in rivers, and on the land. Emission of VOCs leads to the formation of photochemical smog (ozone) by reacting with oxides of nitrogen, other pollutants and sunlight. Photochemical smog affects human health. A number of VOCs are considered to be hazardous air pollutants, e.g. Toluene, MEK etc. Many plant oils can be used as vehicles for pigments in ink. In fact, prior to the early 1960s, linseed, soy, corn and canola were common ingredients in ink. Petroleum products were substituted on a large scale from the early 60s on, primarily because presses were running faster and needed shorter drying times. However, modern technologies, such as UV/EB curing, do enable fast drying times using plant derived or aqueous inks and coatings. Pollution is caused by the evaporation of organic solvents. Organic solvents evaporate at different rates. The vapor pressure of a solvent will indicate how quickly it will evaporate. A high vapor pressure solvent will evaporate quickly (eg. toluene). Many solvents used for press washing and in fountain solutions lose up to half of their volume before they even get to perform the work they are intended for. For example 40-50% of IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) employed in alcohol dampening systems evaporates in the fountain. Similar volumes of press cleaning solvents will evaporate before any cleaning function is accomplished. As indicated above pre-printing waste contributes a lot to the overall waste in printing industry and it directly affects the total cost of printing industry as well. Hence, this research aims to investigate the relationship between pre-printing waste and overall cost of printing industry.

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1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.3.1 1.3.2

Why pre-printing waste is important to printing industry? What is the relationship between pre-printing waste and overall waste of

printing? 1.3.3 1.3.4 cost? What is the relationship between pre-printing waste and overall printing cost? What is the relationship between overall waste of printing and overall printing

1.6 HYPOTHESIS There is a positive co-relation exists between pre-printing waste and overall cost of printing industry.

1.7 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1.5.1

To find out the significance of pre-printing waste to overall cost of printing

industry. 1.5.2 To identify the relationship between pre-printing waste and overall waste of

printing. 1.5.3 cost. 1.5.4 To determine the relationship between overall waste of printing and overall To discover the relationship between pre-printing waste and overall printing

printing cost.

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2.0

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Waste is defined as something lying unproductive, inhabited, or desolate. Generally all waste appears in three forms, namely: solid waste, wastewater (liquid waste), and air emission (Appiah, 2002). Waste reduction which is vital to the growth and development of printing businesses in Sri Lanka cannot be overemphasized. In order to run a printing business as economically and efficiently as possible, one should reduce all types of wastes including hazardous wastes, solid wastes, and air and water emissions. Waste generation is inevitable in printing industry. All the printing processes, namely, offset lithographic printing, gravure printing, flexography/letterpress, and screen printing use materials and chemicals that generate waste. When the waste generated causes financial loss to a company and poses a threat to the environment-air, water, and land, then it becomes a problem to society at large. The Printing Industry The printing industry uses various printing technologies for printing books, magazine, newspapers, business documents, catalogs, form, etc. These technologies include lithography, rotogravure, flexography, screen, letter-press, and digital technologies including inkjet and electro-photography. The use of these technologies depends on the required quality of the print, number of impressions to be printed, availability of required resources, cost of the equipment, consumables cost per unit, need to use variable content, and other factor (Romano, 2004).

Classification of Waste It is important to note that waste does differ from process to process and the methods of reducing waste in one printing process do not necessarily apply to other printing processes. There are three major waste streams found in the printing industry. They include: (a) Solid waste in general printing environment solid waste could consist of the following: empty containers, used film packages, outdated materials, damaged plates, developed films, dated materials, test production, bad printing or spoilage, damaged product, and scrap papers. (b) Water waste water waste from printing operations may contain lubricating oils, waste ink, clean-up solvents, photographic chemicals, acids, alkaline, and plate coatings, as well as metals such as silver, iron, chromium, copper, and barium. (c) Air emissions printing operations produce volatile organic compound emissions from the use of cleaning solvents and inks, as well as alcohol and other wetting agents used in lithographic printing. Larger plants can be the source of sulfur dioxide emissions (Lewis, 1982). Finishing operations may include final trimming, die cutting, folding, collating, binding, laminating, embossing, and assembling

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operations. Binding methods include stitching (stapling), gluing, and mechanical binding. The primary waste are binding and laminating chemicals and scrap papers (Banerjee, 2001). This study reviews literature on waste generation and reduction in offset lithographic printing. However, to give a reader a fair understanding of what the researcher does intend, the literature was written.

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3.0

METHODOLOGY

3.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Dependant Variable

Intermediary Variable

Indipendant Variables

Pre-printing Waste Raw Material Waste

Volatile Organic Compounds Heavy Metals & NonRenewables

Overall Cost

Overall Waste

Energy Waste

Ink Waste

Emission Waste

3.2 SAMPLING

In view of collecting primary data, stratified simple random sampling method is used in this study.

3.3 INSTRUMENTATION Data collection will be carried out through a form of survey method in the research by the researcher. This survey uses a questionnaire to collect data and sometimes researcher will use interview techniques to collect primary data. This questionnaire -6-

will be consisting of qualitative and quantitative question forms to collect trustworthy data in order to eliminate the prejudice of research data collection.

3.4 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

For data presentation and analysis, both descriptive and inferential statistics will be used. Descriptive statistics will be increasingly described the data that will be collected by means of frequency counts, ranges (high and low scores or values), means, modes, median scores, and standard deviations. For better understanding, variables and distributions will be described that are considered as the essential concepts of descriptive statistics.

Inferential statistics were used to draw conclusions and make predictions based on the descriptions of data. In this case, Pearson correlation was employed along with probability, populations, and sampling.

LIMITATIONS AND DELIMITATIONS

As stated, this research will be focusing on procurement functions and overall cost of printing industry. Therefore procurement function involved in other supply chain managements will not be considered in this research. The selected sample might not represent a true picture of the entire population; the researcher will be using a non probability, judgment sampling method. All possible measures will be taken to limit biasness and other errors during sampling.

The reluctance of the respondents to disclose their names and addresses and hesitation to answer some of the questions were also limitations. Reluctance of certain inhabitants due to frighten to the existing government rules and regulations will also limitations.

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RESEARCH PLAN

10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6

Introduction. Literature Review. Methodology. Data Presentation and Analysis. Conclusion. Recommendations.

ACTION PLAN

WEEKS NEEDED FROM 17 DEC 12 - 30 MAY 13 DESCRIPTION 1st Week 2nd Week 3rd Week 4th Week 5th Week 6th Week 7th Week 8th Week 9th Week 10th Week 11th Week 12th Week 13th Week 14th Week 15th Week 16th Week 17th Week 18th Week 19th Week 20th Week 21st Week 22nd Week 23rd Week

Literature review 17 Dec 12 - 21 Jan 13 Preparation of questionnaires 22 - 28 Jan 13 Field work 29 Jan - 19 Feb 13 Submission of Proposal 22 Feb 13 Clean/Edit/Coding data 23 Feb - 5 Mar 13 Analysis of data 6 - 30 Mar 13 Report writing (Initial work) 31 Mar - 28 May 13 Final Report Submission 30 May 13

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REFERENCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appiah, I. K. (2002). Printing techniques. Kumasi, Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah. University of Science & Technology Publishing. Banerjee, S. B. (2001). Managerial perceptions of corporate environmentalism: Interpretations from industry and strategic implications for organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 38, 489-513. Dalessandro, W. (2001). Critical issues in strategic corporate environmental management. Arlington, MA: Business and the Environment, Cutter Information Corp. Hird, K. F. (1991). Offset Lithographic Technology. Tinley Park, Ill: Goodheart-Willcox Company, Inc. Lewis, P. V. (1982). Managing Human Relations. Boston, MA: Kent Publishing Company. Romano, F. (2003). The state of printing in the United States. Electronic Publishing, 27:12. Romano, F. (2004). An investigation into printing industry trends (PICRM-2004-01). Rochester, NY: Rochester Institute of Technology, Printing Industry Center. Rothenberg, S., Toribia, R. & Becker, M. (2002). Environmental management in lithographic printing (PICRM-2002-07). Rochester, NY: Rochester Institute of Technology, Printing Industry Center. Tilley, F. (1999). The gap between the environmental attitude and the environmental behavior of small firms. Business Strategy and the Environment, 8, 238-248. http://www.colduv.com/ http://www.epri.com/EPRI_Journal/dec_1994/Electech_cure.html http://kaos.erin.gov.au/portfolio/epg/environet/ncpd/auscase_studies/fildes.htm http://www.erin.gov.au/portfolio/epg/environet/ncpd/auscase_studies/ http://www.pneac.org/pneac.html http://www.edf.org/pubs/EDF-Letter/1993/Nov/k_pollprvc.html http://es.cpa/gov/techinfo/facts/mass/tura-fs6.html http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/dfe/flexography/case_studies/case1 http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/dfe/flexography/case_studies/case2 http://www.maricopa.gov/sbeap/printp3.htm

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