Traditionally, the printing industry has relied primarily on petroleum-based ink, which isn’t good for people or the environment. Petroleum-based inks contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and as they dry, they give off toxic gases that may contain hazardous materials such as heavy metals or toxic stabilizers, contributing to air pollution. At 4OVER4, we use inks that are vegetable based and environmentally friendly and have little or no mineral oil content. Most frequently, we use soy-based inks, which come from the soybean crop. Soybeans require little energy in the growing and harvesting process. For example, the crops do not need to be irrigated so they conserve water. Soy ink does not give off VOCs and in fact, soybean plants remove greenhouse gases. 4OVER4 also prints efficiently to reduce the amount of ink needed, so we have less waste and we save energy.