Fleet graphics specialist, OPG, based in Lanarkshire, Scotland, working with qualified Metamark materials, now delivers a PVC fleet branding offering that is 100% recyclable. Production waste, and printed and applied graphics recovered at the end of their useful lives, are recycled by Metamark’s MetaStream programme to become useful articles that can themselves be recycled time and again.
The qualified Metamark materials OPG uses are long proven with HP Latex inks so providing an environmentally friendly solution, which delivers undiminished performance and value to OPG’s customers.

Some of the most successful brands in the UK belong to enterprises working in the logistics sector. Much of these brands’ equity and profile arguably traces to the on‐road presence of their fleets. OPG designs, produces and installs the fleet livery and commercial campaign graphics that elevate and promote many such leading brands.

Now, thanks to its partnership with Metamark, OPG can now recover and stream livery graphics it produces, using Metamark media, for recycling, thus keeping valuable resources out of landfill and incineration waste streams. The process, developed by Metamark, is known as MetaStream and the products it yields from the liveries and graphics it recycles include luxury paper goods, traffic cones, furniture and many other recyclable articles.

The programme works with OPG collecting PVC and liner waste during the graphics manufacturing process, at the point of installation or during any end‐of‐life recovery. Recovered waste is baled, palletised and then collected by Metamark and processed through MetaStream.

Metamark recycles the recovered materials turning them into products that can then be reused in a whole host of applications. The process diverts substantial amounts of waste that for many years was destined for landfill or incineration, so making livery production part of the emerging circular economy.

OPG receives an audited certificate to declare recovered, qualifying materials were recycled using MetaStream. This can then be passed on to the company’s customers to demonstrate that their vehicle liveries both look the part and contribute to lessening the environmental impact.

The MetaStream recycling programme works with many of Metamark’s materials commonly specified and used in vehicle branding campaigns. The qualified range includes materials produced expressly for long‐term livery applications and shorter‐term advertising promotions. All are fully tested, profiled and compliant with HP Latex Ink.

As an early adopter of HP Latex ink technology, OPG has enjoyed not only sustained commercial success underpinned by its justified confidence in HP, but also enhanced its long‐standing reputation for environmental management. All this underpins OPG’s established Environmental Management System which is certified to ISO14001:2015 standard and consistently audited by BSI.
Since HP Latex inks are water‐based they are recyclable, returnable, non‐hazardous and safe for disposal. In addition, the supreme print quality, colour fidelity, predictability and reliability of HP Latex ink printers together comprise an irresistible value proposition that has expanded year on year.

Productivity, efficiency and performance have enjoyed a quantifiable boost at OPG due to ongoing investment in HP Latex Ink hardware. These include an HP Latex 3200 printer, while the recent arrival of OPG’s new HP Latex 800W printer promises to expand OPG’s product portfolio further due to its wide colour gamut and an advanced white ink yielding what is widely acknowledged as the best digital white ink in the graphics industry.

OPG continues to profit as a responsible consumer of HP Latex ink and its evolutionary advancements over recent years. Now benefiting from third generation HP Latex, OPG
achieves the highest print quality and colour fidelity, freeing OPG to focus on enhancing its own value proposition to its customers.

Since OPG has been successfully specifying HP Latex Inks and Metamark premium films for years, OPG’s existing customers’ qualifying fleet graphics, even those produced before the availability of the MetaStream process, qualify for inclusion in the new MetaStream programme. OPG looks forward to playing its part along with myriad interested parties to proactively respond to the climate crisis optimistically and responsibly.

Thanks to OPG’s additional certified management systems, ISO 9001:2015 for Quality and ISO45001:2018 for Occupational Health and Safety, audit‐trails are robust. Archived traceability allows OPG to identify which fleet graphics qualify for MetaStream and the company is in the process of inviting qualifying customers to play their part.

For more information on the pioneering scheme, please click here.