Water-based inks vs Plastisol for T-shirt Printing

Water-Based Inks vs Plastisol for t-shirt printing

We think there's only one choice when it comes to ink and here's why.

If you're ordering custom printed t-shirts chances are you're thinking about the design, garments, colours and price then leaving the rest up to your printers but it's worth giving thought to which inks your design will be printed with.

Ink choice is one of the most important decisions in the entire process of eco-friendly t-shirt printing. It determines how the finished shirt looks, how it feels against your skin, how long the print lasts, which chemicals the people printing or wearing it are exposed to every day and ultimately whether the garment you are selling can honestly carry the kind of sustainability credentials that customers today want from their merch.

At Live Ink we don't print with water-based inks because it's an easier or cheaper option, the reality is it can be harder and it's more expensive. We print water based because it gives best looking print that feels great to touch and wear and is the only ink that holds up under proper scrutiny for our customers,  team and the environment.

What is plastisol ink?

Plastisol dominated the screen printing industry since the 1970s and there's good reason for that. It is easy to work with because it does't dry in the screen during printing and it produces vivid colours. For a volume focused industry with tight margins plastisol made commercial sense.

Plastisol is made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin which is the same compound used in pipes, flooring and cable sheathing and then suspended in a liquid plasticiser. To make it soft and workable for printing the ink manufacturers added plasticisers called phthalates. Thankfully there are now phtalate free plastisol inks due to some being banned in the UK and abroad however phthalates and other plasticisers can migrate out of the ink over time and also into water and the human body.

The production of PVC itself releases dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as by-products. Both are classified by the World Health Organisation as highly toxic and in some cases carcinogenic. When plastisol-printed garments are incinerated at end of life they can release these same compounds again.

In Europe phthalates are listed under REACH as substances of very high concern. If you are working with organic cotton garments and printing them with standard plastisol you are adding a PVC coating to a product whose entire value proposition rests on the absence of harmful chemistry.

What is waterbased ink?

Water-based ink uses water as its primary solvent. The pigment or dye is suspended in water with binders to help adhesion and when the ink is cured the water evaporates leaving the pigment embedded in the fibres of the fabric itself or bound further into the weave of the garment. 

Properly formulated waterbased inks and pigments are significantly less harmful than plastisol across the full lifecycle of a garment, from the print shop floor to the end of the shirt's life and crucially don't involve chlorine or the solvents required to clean up after a plastisol print.

Although far better for the environment than plastisol, waterbased inks are still not perfect. They can contain acrylic binders and cleanup requires water which has its own environmental cost. In reality there is no method of printing that has zero environmental impact but by choosing the right inks and garments we can reduce the impact of garment printing dramatically. 

What it feels like to wear

Plastisol sits on top of the fabric and on larger print areas can create a heavy sensation on the fabric that reduces breathability. How a print feels on the t-shirt is know as "hand" and plastisol often has a noticeably heavy hand.

On warm days large plastisol prints can trap heat and moisture against the skin and over time the plastic layer may also crack or peel as it degrades, particularly when exposed to high-heat washing or tumble drying. It is possible with modern inks and proper print technique to print plastisol to feel 'more like a waterbased print' but this doesn't get round the chemical and solvent disadvantages.

Water-based ink in contrast feels much softer and in lower solid bases such as ND Exrtra from Magnacolours can become part of the fabric with no hand feel at all. Prints will move and breathe with the fabric much easier whilst still giving vivid colours when used with high quality eco pigments. Large areas of single colour print will also have noticeably less sheen to them than a plastisol print giving it a much more natural look.

This is one reason why premium retail and fashion-conscious brands have moved substantially towards water-based screen printing. The feel of the product is simply better.

What it means for your organic certification

If you are buying GOTS-certified organic cotton garments and printing them with plastisol ink you have a fundamental problem. GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) is the world's leading standard for organic textiles. It covers the entire supply chain from fibre to finished product, and it requires that all inputs in processing, including dyes and inks, comply with strict biodeg­ra­dability and toxicity requirements.

PVC-based inks are not compatible with GOTS certification. An organic cotton t-shirt printed with standard plastisol cannot legally carry the GOTS label. The certification applies to the whole product, not just the fabric.

Water-based inks can be certified for use in GOTS-certified production chains. Along with ECO PASSPORT certification by OEKO-TEX,  an independent standard that tests every individual ingredient in a chemical product against the OEKO-TEX Restricted Substances List to confirm it is not harmful to human health. 

Products meeting ECO PASSPORT requirements are also recognised by the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) Foundation, a coalition of global fashion brands working to eliminate hazardous chemicals from textile supply chains entirely.

At Live Ink, our water-based inks are certified for use in GOTS-certified production. That is a specific technical certification requiring every ingredient to pass independent testing. It is what makes it possible to genuinely describe a printed garment as organic rather than just organic-adjacent.

What it means for the people doing the printing

This is the part of the conversation that rarely gets enough attention in discussions about sustainable t-shirt printing. These days the consumer facing benefits for water-based ink are well documented. but the occupational health concerns are equally important and far less talked about.

Plastisol screens are cleaned with solvents. An environmental review of screen printing methods found that the chemicals commonly used in plastisol screen printing cleanup include hexane, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), methanol, propylene oxide, xylene, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, butanol and 2-butoxyethanol. Most of these are classified as hazardous air pollutants, and several are known or suspected carcinogens, teratogens or mutagens.

In the USA the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has specifically investigated health risks in screen printing environments concluding with a recommendation to replace any solvent-based inks with low or no-solvent alternatives.

Water-based inks change this picture substantially. 

Firstly screens and squeegees are cleaned with water. There are no hazardous solvent vapours accumulating in the workspace and no specialist chemical storage requirements. Importantly our team at Live Ink are working with water rather than spirits or thinners which carry health risks.

What happens at the end of the garment's life

Unfortunately Plastisol is not biodegradable. The plastic layer cured onto a garment remains as plastic waste when the shirt is eventually discarded. In landfill  PVC persists for decades releasing microplastics and leaching phthalates / plasticisers into groundwater under some conditions. If the garment is incinerated the PVC can produce toxic by-products including dioxins.

Water-based ink on the other hand leaves a significantly smaller residue and the ink itself is rated as ISO 14855 biodegradable. 

Why this matters for your brand

If you are a band, a business, a startup or a brand ordering custom printed garments the ink choice reflects something about you even when your customers cannot see it. It determines whether you can honestly say your merchandise is organic, whether the person who printed your shirts was exposed to harmfull chemicals and whether your t-shirt, years from now, leaves a plastic residue in landfill or decomposes as it should.

More practically it also determines whether your print feels like something worth wearing. A waterbased print on quality organic cotton is a genuinely premium product. It feels different in your hands and is the kind of shirt people keep wearing and wearing.

Eco-friendly t-shirt printing in the UK, done properly

At Live Ink we specialise in eco-friendly t-shirt printing and water-based screen printing on GOTS-certified organic cotton garments, operating from our studio in Bristol. Our water-based inks carry ECO PASSPORT by OEKO-TEX certification and are approved for use in organic textile production chains. 

Whether you are a band putting out your first fifty shirts, a sustainable brand launching a new collection or a business looking for merchandise with genuine credentials we would love to help.

Get in touch and our team will help with a quote.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between water-based and plastisol ink? Plastisol is a PVC-based ink that sits on top of the fabric as a plastic layer. Water-based ink penetrates the fabric fibres and becomes part of the garment. Water-based ink produces a softer, more breathable print and is far more compatible with organic certification standards like GOTS.

Is water-based screen printing eco-friendly? It is significantly more eco-friendly than plastisol. Water-based inks contain no PVC and no phthalates, can be certified under GOTS and OEKO-TEX ECO PASSPORT standards, and require no hazardous chemical solvents for cleanup. No print method is entirely impact-free, but water-based is the most responsible option currently available for organic cotton screen printing.

Can you print on organic cotton with plastisol ink? You can print on organic cotton with plastisol, but the resulting garment cannot carry GOTS certification. GOTS requires all processing inputs, including inks, to meet strict biodeg­ra­dability and toxicity criteria. PVC-based inks do not meet those criteria.

Does water-based ink last as long as plastisol? When properly cured on 100% cotton, water-based ink is durable for the life of the garment. Because the ink can become part of the fabric rather than a layer on top it is less likely to crack or peel. Plastisol can outperform water-based on synthetic blends and some heavy-wear workwear applications but on quality organic cotton the durability difference is minimal.

Where can I get water-based screen printing in the UK? Live Ink is a Bristol-based eco-friendly screen printing studio specialising in water-based inks on GOTS-certified organic cotton. We print from 20 units upward and work with bands, brands, businesses and print-on-demand sellers across the UK.