No matter how you may decide to state it green choices, reduced carbon footprint, eco friendly, environmentally conscious, or a host of other descriptions reducing the negative impact we have on our environment is playing a greater part in our lives as consumers. In order to be a good corporate and global citizen CDwest.ca is proud to offer an increasing number of environmentally friendly packaging choices for our CD duplication and CD manufacturing products.

The quest for providing more responsible products begins with the actual materials being supplied to you. Our standard printing substrates for CD duplication and CD manufacturing packaging products provide an excellent balance between availability, cost and sustainability:

► Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified board stock.
► 100% recycled content.
► 100% recyclable.
► Printed using waterless printing technology.
► Printed using vegetable based inks.

► Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper stock.
► 100% recycled content.
► 100% recyclable.
► Printed using waterless printing technology.
► Printed using vegetable based inks.

What is FSC certified board and paper stock? The (FSC) is an international organization that brings people together to find solutions which promote responsible stewardship of the worlds forests. FSC is a stakeholder owned system for promoting responsible management of the worlds forests and sets international standards for responsible forest management. The FSC accredits independent third party organizations who can certify forest managers and forest product producers to FSC standards. In the past 13 years over 90 million hectares in more than 70 countries have been certified according to FSC standards while several thousand products are produced using FSC-certified wood and carrying the FSC trademark. FSC operates through its network of National Initiatives in 45 countries.

While the printing substrates play an important role in environmentally friendly packaging, the printing processes should not be overlooked. Our offset web printing uses vegetable-based inks which are less harmful to the environment than petroleum-based alternatives. Soy and vegetable products are used in ink for their oils, which act as the vehicle for the ink pigments. Most manufacturers of soy and vegetable based inks today actually "blend" ingredients, much in the way a winemaker will blend grapes, in order to take advantage of the unique characteristics of each oil. Soy and vegetable based inks are widely recognized as the environmentally friendly choice.

Many clients are surprised that we have so many environmentally friendly packaging choices for our CD duplication and CD manufacturing products with a minimum order requirement of just 300 pieces - while the industry standard is still 500 to 1000. Environmentally speaking, it's in everyone's best interests if we produce less. What is the result of manufacturing 500 or 1000 units of a product when the client only has a need for 300? The answer: Waste. Not only is it an unnecessary waste of materials and resources to make unwanted goods, but those unwanted goods will eventually end up in the garbage and then into a land-fill.

If you're familiar with custom manufacturing you'll know that more product needs to be manufactured than is actually ordered by the client - this is to make up for the quantity of items that may get rejected in quality control processes. At CDwest.ca we generally make no more than +5% overage but this does very depending on the total quantity of the order the larger the order, the lower the percentage of overage. Despite having to make excess product, we recycle all excess plastic (disc) and paper/board (print) materials that do not get delivered to the client... it does NOT go into the garbage.