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New York Consolidated Laws, State Printing and Public Documents Law - PPD § 7. Vegetable ink printing

Current as of January 01, 2026 | Updated by Findlaw Staff

1. The legislature finds and declares that:

(a) most state printing involving documents or publications is performed using lithographic inks;

(b) various types of oil, including petroleum and vegetable oil, are used in lithographic ink;

(c) increasing the amount of vegetable oil used in a lithographic ink would:

(i) help reduce the nation's use of nonrenewable energy resources;

(ii) result in the use of products that are less damaging to the environment;

(iii) result in a reduction of volatile organic compound emissions;  and

(iv) increase the use of renewable agricultural products;

(d) the technology exists to use vegetable oil in lithographic ink and, in some applications, to use lithographic ink that uses no petroleum distillates in the liquid portion of the ink;

(e) some lithographic inks have contained vegetable oils for many years;  other lithographic inks have more recently begun to use vegetable oil;

(f) according to the federal government printing office, using vegetable-based ink appears to add little if any additional cost to government printing;

(g) use of vegetable-based ink in state government printing should further develop:

(i) the commercial viability of vegetable-based ink, which could result in demand, for domestic use alone, for two billion five hundred million pounds of vegetable crops or five hundred million pounds of vegetable oil;  and

(ii) a product that could help the United States retain or enlarge its share of the world market for vegetable ink.

2. Definition.  In this section, “state agency” means any department, board, bureau, division or other entity of the state, any public authority or public benefit corporation, the judiciary and the state legislature.

3. General provisions.  Notwithstanding any other law, beginning on the date that is one hundred eighty days after the effective date of this section, all lithographic printing performed or procured by a state agency that uses oil in its ink shall use the maximum amount of vegetable oil that is technologically feasible and results in printing costs that are cost-competitive with printing using petroleum-based inks.

4. Requirements.  (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subdivision, in no event shall a state agency use any ink that contains less than the following percentages of vegetable oil in its ink used for lithographic printing:

(i) in the case of news inks, forty percent.

(ii) in the case of sheet-fed inks, twenty percent.

(iii) in the case of forms inks, twenty percent.

(iv) in the case of heat-set inks, ten percent.

(b) At any time at which a state agency determines that the cost of printing with vegetable-based ink is significantly greater than the cost of printing with petroleum-based ink, the state agency may perform or procure lithographic printing using ink that contains less than the percentages of vegetable oil in its ink than those specified in paragraph (a) of this subdivision until such time as the cost of printing with vegetable-based ink is not significantly greater than the cost of printing with petroleum-based ink.

(c) A determination made under paragraph (b) of this subdivision shall be reviewed at least once every quarter, for the performance or procurement of printing of materials that are printed on a regular basis and prior to performing or procuring the printing of particular material of significant size that is printed once or is printed at intervals of six months or more.

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Cite this article: FindLaw.com - New York Consolidated Laws, State Printing and Public Documents Law - PPD § 7. Vegetable ink printing - last updated January 01, 2026 | https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/new-york-state-printing-and-public-documents-law/ppd-sect-7/

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