It is an honour for me to be able to contribute. Hunter Bliss is my name, and I am from South Carolina. Pebble Printing Group is a small and innovative printing company based in Shenzhen. We are a radical, sustainable company with a focus on stone-made paper. As a blogger, I’d like to tell you a bit about my story, my company’s story and the future I hope sustainable printing will bring.
I was raised and born in Lexington, S.C. I was a typical kid who played golf. My mother instilled in me a strong work ethic that I still possess today. In my 18th year, I went to Germany to pursue physics at TUM to follow in the footsteps of Nikola Tesla, my favorite scientist. The German schools at the time had no tuition, which was an enormous attraction to American students.
In the second year, I realized that I did not like physics. I quit TUM to work as a travel photographer for a Munich software startup called Parkpocket. I was hired to photograph parking garages and spaces in a variety of German cities each week. After a few years, I became pretty proficient in photography and videography. My skills from there led me to do stock photography professionally.
Before they named it “Stuttgart University of Media,” the owner saw my abilities and suggested I pursue further education at the Stuttgart Hochschule der Medien. The German community college is a well-known, proud institution that specializes in media. There are a variety of resources and film studios for aspiring media professionals. I was sure it would be a good fit for me, so I looked at their programs.
During my search, I came across the “German-Chinese Printing and Media Technologies” program. I was at a point where I had already learned a great deal in Germany and thought I could gain even more knowledge by moving to a place that would test me further. In order to learn Chinese, I selected this program and was accepted. I had no idea that I would not only enjoy learning Chinese but also fall in love with printing.
In my three years at the Hochschule der Medien, I became intimately familiar with the printing industry. I still feel privileged that the HdM has given me a perspective in print that many line workers and even owners of legacy companies never get. Digital printing, offset gravure, flexo, and post-press—I was able to touch all the latest machinery, methods, and technologies that are driving the global printing industry. The students were able to experience the most advanced printing and management techniques under one roof.
It was a great experience, and I loved the intensive Chinese classes. In the third year of that program, I made my first trip to China. We studied at Xi’an Technical University’s (Xi An Li Gong Da Xue) printing and packaging department. I interned at a flexible packing company called Lamipak in another city named Suzhou. Over that year, China’s world truly blew me away, as did the printing industry.
RR Donnelley China (RRD) recruited me at the Xi’an Campus. They asked me to work in Shenzhen after I completed my studies in Germany. My final semester began as an intern with RRD Shenzhen. I wrote my thesis on opening a Chinese print business. Ironically, I presented my bachelor’s thesis at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, which is a sister university to the school in Stuttgart. My final day for my printing degree was held with my German and American professors at a video conference in Boone, N.C., just a few miles from home.
After I handed in my thesis and began to wait for my German-Chinese degrees, I returned to Shenzhen and started working in the Business Development Department of RRD Shenzhen. The office was very nice, and I always wore nice clothes. It was like working at Google. This is because the Shenzhen offices are a show of the incredible, laborious printing work that RR Donnelley performs in smaller cities with the most competitive wages. All the Shenzhen printing machines were relocated to Dongguan, a city located north of Shenzhen. Shenzhen’s office has a shuttle that runs daily to Dongguan to deliver dummies and samples.
I took that van to Dongguan twice a week, and it was like walking on a ship full of printing machines. I’ve never seen anything even close to the size of the Dongguan operation in Germany or America. I don’t know if a business of this scale is still viable in America.
In the time between graduation, waiting for my degree, and enthusiastically exploring Dongguan, I made a significant discovery that determined my future. As I scrolled through my LinkedIn feed, a colleague posted an article on a new material called stone paper. The material was marketed as a more sustainable alternative to paper.
The idea fascinated me because of my background in German paper material science. The claim was that the paper is 100% water and tree-free, with 70% fewer emissions than traditional papers. It was only a minor problem that a small amount of polyethene (plastic), which is used as a binding agent for the stone powder, was used. In order to decide whether this material was worthwhile, I wrote a second thesis on the sustainability of stone paper compared to traditional paper in Europe. As I wrote it, RR Donnelley secured its first stone paper project from my client in Germany.
Then, things began to go wrong with RRD. They were optimistic about me, but they refused to help me when it came time to change my visa. My degree was being delayed, and I wasn’t worth the risk. It is not surprising that a large company would prefer to play it safe than take the risk. I was fired from RR Donnelley instantly.
Around the same time, I finished my 33-page sustainability thesis on the European stone paper market. I concluded that stone paper would save enormous amounts of resources and fossil fuels if all graphic documents on the European market replaced it. My commitment was clearly worth it. It was then that I decided to open my own printing company to save my Shenzhen residence and to develop stone paper.
I can’t recall how I met my partner at Stone Paper. I only know that my current visa was obtained after a long struggle. My current partner is the owner of a small stone-paper warehouse in Shenzhen. She said that we could work it out shortly after our meeting, and I had a fantastic visa agent by my side. She said she couldn’t give me money because she didn’t make enough herself. But she could use her company name to help immigration get me a visa. There were then two months between the expiration of my visa and my receiving my final Chinese Bachelor’s degree. The Chinese government decided to extend visas to foreigners for two months due to the virus. This gave us time to update my visa and get my final Chinese bachelor’s degree.
Pebble Printing Group was born. After my visa had been updated, I was able to work with a supplier of stone paper. It was only a matter of printing orders and a better understanding of stone paper. As a marketing-focused American, I ran direct mail campaigns in my apartment. I created a way to use a microwave and spray paint with a water-based printer to print on waterproof paper.
Shenzhen was my source for stone paper, and I folded it all myself. For less than USD 300, I got the material to almost every New Zealand publisher. We have now printed two orders with my first client, who came from this campaign. My first German client and her orders helped me to survive in the beginning. The cost of living in China is not very high.
I will sum up the 16 months since then. The last 16 months have been an emotional rollercoaster. I am glad to report that things are going in the right direction. I was betrayed by two investors but made a lot of waves in Europe and Australia. I was able to attract the attention of a dozen or so of Germany’s largest publishers and make it into their biggest publishing magazine. Now, my main business is from Germany.
I came in second in the Otto Krahn Innovation Challenge. This was a competition held by a major plastics manufacturer in Hamburg looking for circular economy solutions. There, I presented my plan for the first circular stone paper manufacturing plant in Europe and the world. In the UK, I printed the world’s first children’s books on stone paper. Children’s books, however, are the best application of stone paper. The beauty of stone-paper children’s books is awe-inspiring. They are durable, waterproof, non-toxic, and tear-resistant and do not cause paper cuts. We’re currently working on publishing projects in Australia.
I invented a way of binding books using plastics that were disposed of in landfills. After 16 months of production, the printing products that we produce are almost enough to support my entire life in Shenzhen. The good news is that I believe our printing will need an account executive next year.
Above all the printing possibilities, the raw material appears to offer the possibility of explosive growth. My networking and diligence in China allowed me to meet the owner of China’s most innovative stone-paper machinery developer only a few months ago. I was able to sign a contract to receive a survival investment from him and represent him overseas.
There are now a number of opportunities in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa where we can build stone paper mills and lower the cost of traditional paper. One thing I’ve learned from working on stone paper is that the calcium carbonate component, which makes up 80% of the material, costs just a few dollars compared to wood pulp at $800 or more per ton. The only thing that stands in our way is the cost of polyethene, which accounts for 20% of what we produce. We can achieve great leaps by being creative in the printing and paper industries. Pebble could become a global leader in paper and plastic.
This is where we are now. After 16 months of working in my apartment, I’m still churning beautiful stone paper products and chiselling at stone paper machine projects. Now, I have been invited to contribute to Printing Impressions. I’m excited to share my findings about printing and sustainability.
We’re getting started in an industry that has such a rich history. The next revolution is in sustainability.
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