INX Earns Gold Level Material Health Certificate

INX International Ink Co. is now the first and only ink company in the metal decorating segment to receive a Gold level Material Health Certificate from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (C2CPII), in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency.

Intended for use on beverage cans, the AP EcoCan 2-piece metal ink system achieved this status after INX standard AP series inks had already earned bronze level certification.

This achievement is significant since C2CPII is the certifying body designing, implementing, and managing systems and processes serving as a Certification program for products and materials that meet certain quality assurance criteria.

The organization helps brand owners with their sustainability efforts by determining and validating which sustainable materials, products and systems that are safe for the environment and human health.

Safe and sustainable packaging elements such as printing inks are important to attain the certification of the complete packaging.

The Material Health Gold certification is modeled to improve the ways products are made, used and re-used.

This is essential to brand owners looking to substantiate their sustainability efforts, including the development of ink solutions used on their products.

The C2C material health principle indicates the printing ink materials are inert to the environment and safe for human health. Gold certification is awarded to products that contain absolutely no substances on a banned chemicals list.

According to Alex Folloso, director of Metal Decorating Technology for INX International manufacturing plans of the AP EcoCan have been finalized.

“AP EcoCan will be manufactured using only materials that have been optimized and do not contain any X or Grey assessed materials/chemicals,” said Folloso, who indicated the certification is valid for two years. “It was a lengthy process and we had to first provide EPEA with formulations and CAS level disclosure of the raw materials for their review. But we are elated with the results and what this means to be the first in the metal decorating category to earn this designation.”