When Tradeprint and Antalis UK co-build zero-waste solutions
Discover how Antalis UK and Tradeprint transform PVC waste into resources. A deep dive into the banner return scheme and human expertise for a circular future.
Discover how Antalis UK and Tradeprint transform PVC waste into resources. A deep dive into the banner return scheme and human expertise for a circular future.
In the large-format print industry, sustainability is no longer a distant objective but an operational necessity. From event banners to retail displays, Visual Communication materials generate significant waste at the end of each campaign, challenging traditional linear production models. By combining human expertise with circular thinking, Antalis UK and Tradeprint demonstrate how concrete, zero-waste solutions can reshape the environmental impact of visual communication, starting with the Banner Return Scheme.
The challenge of Visual Communication: moving beyond the linear model
Large-format Visual Communication: events, retail activation, exhibitions, outdoor advertising, relies heavily on short-lived printed materials. PVC banners are widely used for their durability, print quality and cost-effectiveness. Yet their end-of-life remains a major environmental challenge: after a single campaign, most banners are discarded, ending up in landfill or incineration.
This linear “produce–use–dispose” model is increasingly at odds with today’s ESG expectations. Brands, print buyers and print service providers are under growing pressure to quantify and reduce their environmental footprint, not only during production but across the entire life cycle of visual media.
Against this backdrop, sustainability is no longer a marketing add-on, it is a strategic lever. The key question facing the industry is clear: how can Visual Communication remain impactful while drastically reducing waste?
This is where Antalis UK has reframed the problem. Rather than focusing solely on selling “greener” substrates, Antalis UK has chosen to address the hardest part of the equation: what happens after the banner has served its purpose. In partnership with Tradeprint, this ambition has given rise to a concrete circular solution: the Banner Return Scheme.
The Banner Return Scheme: closing the loop on PVC banners
A new way of thinking about printed media
The Banner Return Scheme is built on a simple but transformative idea: responsibility does not end at delivery. Instead of treating banners as disposable products, Antalis UK and Tradeprint have designed a closed-loop system that ensures PVC materials are collected, recycled and reintegrated into the economy. The objective is no longer just to supply a banner, but to guarantee its responsible end-of-life, turning waste into a resource.
How the system works
1. Collection of used banners
Once a campaign ends, PVC banners used by Tradeprint customers are returned via a dedicated take-back scheme. By organizing and centralizing this collection, Antalis UK removes a major barrier to recycling: logistics.
2. Technical recycling and transformation
The collected flexible PVC is then processed through specialist recycling channels. Rather than being downcycled into low-value applications, the material is transformed into durable rigid products, most notably road traffic cones and other signaling equipment.
3. Re-entry into the real economy
This transformation gives the material a second life in an entirely different sector, where durability and robustness are essential. The result is a genuinely zero-waste solution: the PVC is neither landfilled nor incinerated, but re-used in a long-term, high-utility application.
This closed-loop approach illustrates a fundamental principle of the circular economy: waste only exists when systems are poorly designed. Here, design, logistics and recycling expertise converge to create tangible impact.
For further insight into Antalis’ circular initiatives, see: https://www.antalis.co.uk/home/what-we-do/visual-communication/environment/our-commitments.html
Antalis expertise: enabling sustainable transformation
Human expertise at the core
What makes the Banner Return Scheme truly effective is not technology alone, but human expertise. Antalis UK acts as a strategic partner, working closely with Tradeprint to map material flows, identify pain points and co-design workable solutions.
This consultative approach ensures that sustainability initiatives are operationally realistic, economically viable and scalable, rather than theoretical.
Decision-making tools that anticipate end-of-life
To support customers upstream, Antalis has developed tools that help printers make better material choices from the outset:
a) Green Star System™
Antalis’ Green Star System™ provides a clear framework for assessing materials based on recyclability, environmental impact and circular potential. By integrating end-of-life considerations into procurement decisions, printers can avoid future waste challenges before they arise.
Learn more: https://www.antalis.co.uk/home/what-we-do/print/environment/green-star-system.html
b) Switch Green Box: testing sustainable alternatives
Another key enabler is the Switch Green Box, a sampling and evaluation tool designed to help customers test more sustainable substrates in real production conditions. Rather than relying on theoretical claims, printers can assess print quality, handling and installation performance while also understanding recyclability pathways. A recent example with Arc UK demonstrates how this tool supports confident decision-making and accelerates the shift away from conventional PVC solutions.
c) Concrete benefits for Tradeprint and its customers
For Tradeprint and its customers, participation in the Banner Return Scheme delivers multiple advantages:
Improved environmental credentials, backed by a verifiable recycling process.
Reduced overall ecological impact, particularly in waste management. Greater transparency for end customers increasingly demanding proof of sustainable practices. Crucially, sustainability becomes a value proposition rather than a constraint, strengthening customer trust and brand differentiation.
Towards responsible Visual Communication
The collaboration between Antalis UK and Tradeprint demonstrates that the circular economy is not an abstract ideal, but a practical, achievable model, when innovation is paired with human expertise.
By closing the loop on PVC banners, the Banner Return Scheme transforms a major waste stream into a durable resource, proving that zero-waste solutions are viable in large-format print. More broadly, it highlights Antalis’ ambition to go beyond product distribution and become a strategic partner for sustainable transformation.
As ESG requirements intensify and clients demand accountability, such co-constructed solutions point the way forward: a future where Visual Communication remains powerful, creative and genuinely responsible.
