It takes toxic solvents to clean up after printing with plastisol and it emits volatile organic compounds when cured. The silk-screening industry in the U.S. accounts for nearly 50 thousand tons of solid waste per month. High Cotton has been in business since 1989, previously printing with plastisol on t-shirts. However, once the hazards of printing with plastisol were disclosed, High Cotton decided to turn to water-based inks. Unfortunately the unaware screen printer washes the ink waste down the drain and forgets about it.
Soy ink is essentially the same as plastisol.
High Cotton, with the help of a local EPA investigator, performed a study finding that water-based inks were not safe for our water systems. Plain and Simple . . . High Cotton chose to compliment their Planet Ink by printing it on shirts made of high quality, certified organic cotton. The cotton is grown under strict organic farming regulations. Organic farming is a production system that avoids the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides or growth regulators.