The printing business is rather hard to get into because of the high prices of the
equipment and the need to have a large floor room for all the machinery. Also there is
usually stiff competition within a small area.
The government imposes many regulations on printing companies in the hope that it will
help keep the environment clean from wastes. For protecting from water pollution the
Clean Water Act is in effect for the printing industry. Businesses must give
information on the locations of where chemicals are being used. They must also give a
diagram showing the water flow through the facility. Also they need to give a
description of the average flows and the treatment of the wastewater before it's
discharged and also a estimate of the facilities production. The government also wants
the companies to give them information on how much ammonia they use along with the
biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon, total suspended
solids, and the temperature of the water both in the winter and summer along with its pH.
Along with the Clean Water Act the business must meet air guidelines and solid waste
regulations.
The socially important factor that the printing industry does is communicate with people
in mass amounts. It allows fast transfer of data and gives people a hard copy to read.
With out the printing industry we would have to rely on other methods of transferring and
communication information with people such as TV, radio, billboards, and hand written
documents. These would work fine but would cost businesses higher prices which in turn
would cause the consumer to pay more for products.
|