Setting the Tone in Sustainable Printing Operations

Our recently released 2021 Sustainability Report outlines our commitment to overseeing and implementing sustainable practices at the highest standard with four key priorities: Valuing and Protecting Our People, Advancing Responsibility, Supporting Our Communities, and Fostering Sustainable Operations. 

Our Lakeland, FL instant ticket printing facility plays a key role in these efforts through their outstanding accomplishments, highlighted within Advancing Responsibility and Fostering Sustainable Operations.

Advancing Responsibility: Product Safety & Quality

• Product safety, durability and security are paramount features of our instant tickets, designed to protect customers and players against material faults, health and fraud risks: An all water-based chemistry in coatings and inks used to print the tickets assures tickets are non-toxic, and scratch tickets do not cause any physical harm to the consumer.
• Instant ticket paper is sourced from a supplier who adopts a sustainable forest management system and maintains an extensive sustainability program – allowing instant tickets to be recyclable.
• Cartons are purchased from a supplier who is Sustainable Forestry Initiative certified. They contain approximately 30% pre-consumer recycled corrugated paper and are completely recyclable along with the paper labels used to identify cartons.
• Unique coatings on tickets create an envelope around the play symbols to protect against fraudulent attempts of win/loss status - maintaining the integrity of the lottery.
• Security of the tickets are evaluated during the print run – eliminating concerns once the tickets are being sold. 

Fostering Sustainable Operations: Reducing the Environmental Impact

Emissions:

• The Lakeland facility continues to use a water- based ink construction and water-based plate manufacturing processes to minimize the VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) and HAP’s (Hazardous Air Pollutants) produced. The VOCs emissions in 2021 decreased by 8% with respect to 2020. 

Waste, Water and Material Consumption: 

• The Lakeland facility uses potable water for all purposes within the building and in the production process and has implemented a water reduction program for cleaning printing rollers. In 2021, the site switched to a laser system that gets rid of wastewater generation. The new system led to a savings of 200 cubic meters of water in 2021. 
• An Anilox Cleaning system was installed in 2021 for a more efficient washing of printing machines. Specifically, this system allows cleaning of the printing rollers through laser technology, thus reducing the detergent need. This led to an annual energy savings equal to 676.9 kWh and to the elimination of 52,491 gallons of wastewater from the mainstream. The installation of a second Anilox Cleaning system, which is expected to result in annual energy savings of 371.6 kWh, has already been planned for 2022.
• The Lakeland facility is certified by a third-party registrar as a Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) Chain of Custody certified facility for paper products.
• They use an ink color-match and mixing center on site to reduce the quantity of plastic pails used to print custom/pantone colors. This program greatly reduces the quantity of plastic utilized by the Lakeland facility’s ink suppliers as well as ink waste. Plastic buckets do not lend themselves to normal recycling processes. The partnership with NuCycle provides an outlet to convert these normally non-recycled landfill materials into an alternative energy resource.  

Awards and certifications: 

The Lakeland facility was recognized as the winner of the 2021 Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) Sustainability Excellence Award for having implemented a waste reclamation program in partnership with NuCycle Energy, a waste processing technology company that develops an alternative fuel. This program replaces coal generated from standard landfill waste materials with Enviro-Fuelcubes. 

In addition to the NuCycle partnership, the Lakeland facility also implemented a landfill waste reduction program to reduce the generation of greenhouse gases (GHG) and mitigate the potential groundwater contamination from its waste stream. This program has entailed employee training materials, dedicated recycling storerooms and docks, and transportation between the facility and the new waste processors.  

This has led to the reduction of open top waste containers, as the reclaimed materials are kept and transported in closed top truck containers, which not only remove excess process waste but also decrease potential spreading or leaking of contaminants. The results are impressive, eliminating 7,175,050 pounds of waste from landfills in 2020, of which 1,073,380 pounds were used to make alternative fuel. 

We’re proud of the enormous positive impacts our Lakeland facility has made through these sustainable improvements. We look forward to continuing our efforts and sharing them with you as we work to build a more sustainable world and industry.