Soy inks
Soy sauce (or soya sauce) tastes great on noodles but one must control the manner by which the noodles are consumed. Over enthusiastic slurping of the noodle may result in soy sauce splattered over your best clothing.
Of course condiment lovers out there will know soy sauce as a very dark organic liquid that's going to make a mark.
However, more positive marks are made by soy ink.
An environmentally friendly ink
Like soy sauce, soy inks are derived from soy beans. Refined soybean oil is mixed with pigments to give a more organically sourced, environmentally friendly alternative to traditional petroleum based inks.
Today soy inks dominate in the American newspaper industry and are being adopted by a growing percentage of commercial printers. The clear soybean oil source needs less pigment to produce a brighter coloured ink and in printing the ink usage is more efficient. Farming the soy bean itself requires few nutrients and no irrigation while production results in lower levels of residues and emissions than with many other crops.
Soy inks and their use in our toys
While pigments and additives mean soy inks are not 100% biodegradable they do degrade far more that petroleum inks. In addition, soy inks are far easier to remove in the de-inking stage of the paper recycling process. This means Toyella paper based gifts such as those in the ranges of Mudpuppy toys not only use recycled paper and soy inks, but the use of soy inks makes cardboard products more recyclable too.
All very digestible!
