By Rusiate Vunirewa, Fiji Times – 18 March 2023

Recycling paper wastage is Star Printery’s responsibility to Mother Earth. Star Printery director Vikesh Chauhan said this while highlighting the importance of recycling for the printing company.

Mr Chauhan says the commercial printer has been in the printing business for 38 years and has produced a variety of products widely available throughout the Pacific region.

According to the director, they only source the best paper to make their products.

“The wide range of paper products we produce has one thing in common and that’s paper.

“The paper we source has to come from mills that are certifi ed by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). This ensures the trees we buy to make paper are re-planted.”

“From these mills we source paper from, we produce a wide variety of envelopes, exercise books, posters, booklets and other items,” he says.

Star Printery has always faced challenges in recycling often looking overseas to send their paper waste.

“Unfortunately Fiji is such a small country with a small market.

We don’t have a lot of companies that can deal with recycling. So it’s always a challenge.

“Initially, many years ago, we used to give it to a company that packed the papers and sent it to China for recycling purposes.

The printing company is one of the biggest suppliers of paper for the Nambawan toilet tissue, a product made from 100 percent recycled paper.

“But over the last few years we’ve been lucky to have a local company using our paper waste and converting it to Nambawan toilet paper.

“We are one of the largest printing companies in Fiji and the number of machines we have and the amount of printing we do on a daily basis, means we would be generating a significant amount of paper waste.

“Every second day, a truck picks up the paper and takes it to be recycled.

In addition to recycling, Mr Chauhan says the company supports the “going green” in a bid to fight climate change.

“You would go to take away shops and are given plastic containers, or styrofoam containers and cups

“The issue with styrafoams is that it never degrades and plastics will take anywhere between 200 years to 1000 years, or probably more.”

Vikesh Chauhan

“We saw the devastating effects that plastics and in particular styrofoams were having on our environment, we decided to bring an alternative product to styrofoams and plastics.

“Star Printery bought machines that converts paper into cups, takeaway boxes, paper bags, an alternative to styrofoams and plastics.

In his Global Recycling Day message, he urges Fijians to make recycling a part of their daily living and to look after the environment stating that it’s everyone’s responsibility to look after Mother Earth.