Eco-Friendly

ORGANIC & SUSTAINABLE GARMENTS PRINTED WITH 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ECO-CERTIFIED INKS.

Our inks are as planet friendly as it gets.

AND THAT'S NOT ALL...

Have more questions about our environmental policy? You can find further information by clicking the link at the bottom of the page. Alternatively feel free to contact us and one of the team will be happy to help.

What Makes Sustainable T-Shirt Printing Different

Sustainable t-shirt printing in the UK means different things depending on who you ask. For some printers it starts and ends with offering organic cotton as an option. For us it covers every stage of the process, from the garments we stock and the inks we print with through to the energy that powers our equipment, the packaging your order ships in and what happens to waste at the end of production. We built Live Ink around these principals and it is reflected in the certifications of our inputs and outputs rather than just the claims we make.

The foundation of any sustainable t-shirt printing service is the garment itself. A print is only as responsible as the blank it goes onto, which is why our core range is built around Stanley/Stella and Earth Positive. Their garments are manufactured using GOTS certified organic cotton grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers, processed in Fair Wear audited factories and certified to OCS and GRS standards where recycled fibres are used. We also work with AS Colour and other carefully selected suppliers, but Stanley/Stella remains our default recommendation for customers who want the strongest possible supply chain credentials behind their branded clothing. Every garment we offer through our sustainable range has documented traceability from raw fibre to finished product, which means you can pass that information on to your own customers with confidence.

Inks are where a lot of the greenwashing in garment printing happens. The phrase "eco-friendly inks" gets used loosely across the industry, often applied to inks that are simply phthalate-free but still contain PVC or require solvent-based cleanup. Our screen printing inks and DTG inks are genuinely water-based formulas that carry GOTS certification, OEKO-TEX ECO PASSPORT certification and compliance with the ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List. GOTS certification in particular is significant because it covers the ecological and social impact of the entire textile processing chain, not just the chemical composition of a single product. When we say our inks are certified, we mean they have been independently tested and verified, not that we have written our own marketing copy and called it a standard. You can find the full detail on our ink compliance page.

Our screen printing inks are also formaldehyde-free, including our discharge ink system. Discharge printing is a technique used to remove the dye from dark garments before applying colour, and many discharge systems on the market still rely on formaldehyde-based activators. Ours does not. Our DTG inks carry the same water-based GOTS and OEKO-TEX certifications and are additionally CPSIA compliant, which matters if you are selling printed garments in the US market. Whether you are ordering 20 screen printed t-shirts for a product launch or a single DTG printed hoodie through our print on demand service, the inks hitting the fabric meet the same standards.

We take the same approach to packaging and dispatch. All of our individual garment mailer bags are made from FSC certified paper and are fully recyclable. Bulk orders ship in reused cardboard boxes that originally delivered blank stock to us. For local Bristol deliveries we use a zero-emission cargo bike courier. These are small details individually but they add up across thousands of orders a year and they reflect a consistent commitment rather than selective effort.

What happens at the end of a production run matters too. Screens are reclaimed using a zero-VOC, non-hazardous solution in self-contained tanks that allow the solution to be reused rather than disposed of after every job. Water used in screen production, reclaiming and cleaning passes through a five-stage filtration system before it leaves the building. Unused screen printing inks are stored and remixed for future jobs rather than thrown away. Garments that are damaged during production or fail quality checks are used for test printing and cleaning before eventually being recycled into materials like carpet underlay or sports equipment padding. Our DTG printers use a closed ink system that eliminates spillage and minimises waste ink. None of these practices are unique to Live Ink on their own, but the fact that they all operate together as a single integrated system is what makes the difference. You can read our full environmental policy for more detail.

We have been printing in Bristol for over 13 years and we are not just a conventional printer that has bolted on an eco range to keep up with demand. Our entire operation is set up this way as standard, which means you do not need to request a sustainable option or pay a premium for it. Every order that leaves our studio, whether it is a run of 5000 screen printed t-shirts for a festival, a batch of embroidered caps for a coffee shop or a single DTG hoodie fulfilled through print on demand, is produced to the same environmental standards.

If you are looking for sustainable t-shirt printing in the UK and want to work with a studio that can back up its claims with recognised certifications rather than vague promises, get in touch or create a free account to get started. We are always happy to talk through your options and help you find the right garments and print method for your project.