Recycle your letterpress polymer plates and film
We don’t want printing to harm the planet any more than it must. So we make sure our plates have another life after they’re done printing.
To recycle your photopoylmer plates, you have two options.
#1. Mail the plates back to us. Boxcar Press Photopolymer Recycling; 509 W. Fayette St., #135; Syracuse, NY 13204.
#2. Bring your plates to one of these drop-off spots.
Look for the big brown plate recycling box with our logo on it in any of these places.
| location | street | city | state | zip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS220 Community Printshop | 95 Matthewson St, #204 | Providence | RI | 02906 |
| The Arm | 281 N 7th Street, Williamsburg | Brooklyn | NY | 11211 |
| Wells College | 170 Main Street | Aurora | NY | 13026 |
| Virginia Arts of the Book Center | 2125 Ivy Road, Suite 5 | Charlottesville | VA | 22903 |
| WNY Book Arts Collaborative | 468 Washington Street | Buffalo | NY | 14203 |
| Genesee Center for the Arts & Education | 713 Monroe Ave | Rochester | NY | 14607 |
| Pyramid Atlantic Art Center | 8230 Georgia Ave | Silver Spring | MD | 20910 |
| Baltimore Print Studios | 18 West North Ave, Station North Arts District |
Baltimore | MD | 21201 |
| MICA Print Shop | 1300 W Mount Royal Ave | Baltimore | MD | 21217 |
| Crayton-Heritage Letterpress Printing | 2321-B Distribution Street | Charlotte | NC | 28203 |
| Atlanta Printmakers Studio | 675 Metropolitan Pkwy SW Stud 6026 | Atlanta | GA | 30310 |
| Igloo Letterpress | 39 West New England Ave | Worthington | OH | 43085 |
| Iowa Center for the Book | 216 North Hall | Iowa City | IA | 52242 |
| Minnesota Center for Book Arts | 1011 Washington Ave S | Minneapolis | MN | 55415 |
| Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts | 1104 South Wabash Ave, Suite 200 | Chicago | IL | 60605 |
| San Francisco Center for the Book | 300 De Haro Street, Suite 334 | San Francisco | CA | 94103 |
| School of Visual Concepts | 500 Aurora Ave N | Seattle | WA | 98109 |
| Seattle Central Community College Publishing Arts – Central Campus | 1701 Broadway | Seattle | WA | 98122 |
| Studio on Fire | 1621 E Hennepin Ave | Minneapolis | MN | 55414 |
Want to become a plate recycling drop off spot? email us
What we can recycle:
- metal and plastic polymer plates purchased from us
- blue plastic release paper that sticks to the adhesive
- mylar overlay (on unexposed polymer)
- plate bags (both clear biodegradable bags and the black light blocking bags)
- film
What not to send:
- paper trash or other debris stuck to your plates
- cardboard
How to package your photopolymer plates.
- Clean the ink off the plates.
- Keep plastic-backed and steel-backed plates in separate bags.
- On the outside of the box, write what kind of plates are inside: “metal plates,” “plastic plates,” or “metal and plastic”
- You can cut down your plates so they’ll fit in a smaller box if you want to save on shipping.
This is what happens to your plates, film and bags.
- plastic-backed polymer plates and polymer bags: baled as low-grade mixed plastic and used to make consumer goods such as outdoor furniture or plastic lumber.
- film: sent out for silver recovery, where the silver is refined and recycled into the silver industry. Once the silver has been extracted, the plastic film is baled and recycled into the plastics industry, where it is used to make products like outdoor furniture and plastic lumber.
- steel-backed plates: the polymer on steel-backed plates is burned off in the smelting process. The steel is turned into other steel products.