T-Shirt Elephant makes every effort to plan for a sustainable future.
Here are some of the ways we try to offset our footprint:
- Safer Inks - because we invest in the most up to date print equipment we are also investing in the most sustainable print methods. Our Kornit DTG printers use water-based NeoPigment inks which are free of heavy metals, formaldehyde and Alkylphenol Ethoxylates (APE) making them non-hazardous, non-toxic and biodegradable.
- Water Conservation - One of the biggest environmental risk factors in textiles is water pollution. By using Kornit printers we are able to offer a 100% waterless process; there is no pretreatments, steaming or washing required.
- Screen Creation - When we do use the traditional Screen Printing method, we use the most sustainable technology, allowing us to reuse the water that would normally go down the drain during the “wash out” phase of the process. Also, we use a digital process for creating the screen which eliminates the need for acetate paper, making for a much less wasteful process.
- Screen Reclamation - Aside from a more sustainable screen creation process, we also make sure to reclaim all of our screens using a closed loop system. This method allows us to reuse chemicals that most other printers would just pour down the drain (as if they were washing dishes).
- Conscientious Product Sourcing - We are always looking for new sustainable and eco-friendly options when it comes to our product offerings, whether that means sourcing from our home city, or partnering with more sustainable companies. We love using wage and eco-friendly blanks (we also welcome supplier suggestions if you know any sustainable options).
- Reusing Misprints - Mistakes can happen during the print process and since we never ship our mistakes we had to come up with creative ways to not waste garments. Some customers agree to allow us to donate their misprints, and the ones we cannot donate we use for test printing or turn them into rags.
