Waste reduction isn’t simply about what happens to a sheet of paper after it has been printed.
In a print environment, waste can occur at every stage, from raw materials and make-ready through to production, finishing, packaging, transport and ultimately the end of the product’s useful life.
The best approach is therefore to prevent waste before it happens, rather than relying solely on recycling afterwards.
Where can waste occur?
Waste can include:
- paper and board
- production offcuts
- make-ready materials
- inks and consumables
- packaging
- obsolete or unused stock
- damaged or incorrectly produced items
- materials that cannot be recycled through conventional routes.
Prevention comes first
Our approach is built around the hierarchy:
Avoid → Reduce → Reuse → Recycle → Recover
That means looking at the entire production process and asking where material, energy or resources can be saved before considering what happens to waste at the end.
Technology and data can also play an important role.
Accurate production planning, automated workflows and better demand forecasting can help reduce errors, unnecessary make-ready, overproduction and obsolete stock.
What happens to our production waste?
Printing is a resource-intensive manufacturing process, so managing waste effectively is an important part of reducing our environmental impact.
We monitor waste streams across our operations and work to reduce waste at source, increase recycling and recovery, and ensure waste is handled responsibly.
Our 2025 performance
In 2025, 100% of Pureprint Group’s operational waste was diverted from landfill.
Across our operations, we managed 2,138.55 tonnes of operational waste through our established waste management processes.
Our environmental performance data is monitored as part of our wider environmental management system, helping us understand where waste is generated and identify opportunities to reduce it.
Reducing waste at source
The most sustainable waste is waste that isn’t created in the first place. We therefore focus not only on how waste is managed, but on reducing material use and production waste through better planning, technology and process efficiency.
This includes:
- Using digital and data-driven production to print what is needed, when it is needed.
- Improving production planning and dynamic allocation to reduce overproduction.
- Monitoring waste levels across our operations.
- Separating waste streams to enable appropriate treatment and recovery.
- Working with specialist waste contractors to manage different waste streams responsibly.
- Continuing to identify opportunities to reduce material consumption and improve resource efficiency.
Looking beyond landfill
Diverting 100% of our waste from landfill is an important part of our approach, but we recognise that landfill diversion is only one measure of circularity.
Our focus is increasingly on waste prevention, material efficiency, recycling and recovery, so that we can keep resources in use for as long as possible and reduce the environmental impact associated with production.
We are continuing to develop our waste and circularity reporting so that we can provide increasingly detailed information on how different waste streams are managed and where further improvements can be made.
→ Explore our approach to circularity and resource efficiency
→ Learn how digital print can help reduce overproduction
Waste isn’t just a production issue
For customers, waste reduction can start before a job reaches the printer.
Choosing the right format, paper, quantity, production method, packaging and distribution model can all influence how much material is ultimately used; and how much becomes waste.
Explore:
→ Our waste and recycling performance
→ Sustainable material choices
→ How print-on-demand reduces waste