With the holiday season upon us, we should all learn a few basic tips that allow us to be more eco-friendly and produce less waste!

• Reuse old boxes for presents. Already used boxes can be be great for packaging your gift because they can be reused more than once. Bring these old cardboard boxes back to life by making them more festive by using old pieces of wrapping paper and gluing or taping the scraps to the box. 
• Use fabric as wrapping paper. This holiday season, instead of filling trash bags with ripped up wrapping paper, try using fabric as wrapping paper. This way, you will be able to stop using unsustainable rolls of wrapping paper and be more environmentally friendly. You can also be creative by wrapping presents with old maps, the comics section of a newspaper. You can also use fabric such as a scarf, dish towel, bandana, or another cloth item.
• Buy energy saving lights for the holiday season. Swap the tradition incandescent lights for LED lights to decorate your house. LED lights use up to 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights. By Using LED lights, you can safe your family up to $50 on your energy bills during the holiday season!
• Shop online to save energy and fuel that you would use to travel from one to another, this will also save you money on gas.   
• Send your greeting cards electronically. Every year about 2.6 billion greeting cards are sent. Sending a greeting card electronically is the perfect way to reduce waste. Websites like Hallmark or Photobucket offers a selection of holiday greeting cards that allow for great personalization options for you and your family. If you prefer to take the more traditional route by sending cards through the mail, look for holiday cards printed out on recycled paper. 
• Give new life to old greeting cards by recycling the cards by cutting them into your favorite images and details from the cards . You can then turn these into gift tags or use them as decoration.

With a global recession negatively affecting many industries there are some industries experiencing phenomenal growth. One example is the paper packaging market which according to recent research, is expected to hit $236 billion dollars globally before the end of 2011. Further, in emerging markets such as China, Brazil, and India, the growth is expected to persist. The consumer demand in North America and Europe is also on the rise.

So why the growth in this market? Various factors such as the ability to recycle, convenience, and cost-effectiveness can be attributed. The main advantage the paper packaging industry has through is its environmentally friendliness. Combined with quality, paper packaging is a viable packaging option in our modern world that is concerned about sustainability. As technologies and innovations continue to evolve, the paper packaging market only gets stronger providing manufacturers with more customized solutions.

This report comes as no surprise to anyone who has observed packaging in a retail setting over the past handful of years. Paper packaging is replacing many types of plastics packaging. Consumer behavior is changing, demanding less packaging that is recyclable and marketers and packaging manufacturers are capitalizing on the opportunities.

Steve’s Real Foodpet food company has adopted a new type of flexible packaging. NVIRO, developed by Eagle Flexible Packaging, is comprised of renewable and compostable materials and printed and laminated with low VOC inks and adhesives. Using materials derived from corn and plant starches, NVIRO packaging can be composted in a municipal composting environment.

Steve’s Real Food is a raw dog food manufacturer. They have committed themselves to holding rigorous environmental standards in regards to packaging. They chose NVIRO flexible packaging because they wanted to be a leader in sustainable packaging. Looking for green packaging can be tricky these days, as so much out there sounds green but ultimately lacks the backing of a misleading marketing message.

The packaging Steve’s Real Food has adopted isn’t just eco-friendly, it’s also quite innovative. They have incorporated a ZIP-PAK Press-to-close solution to make it convenient for their customers to use. The ZIP-PAK is made from the same compostable material as the pouch film.

It’s only one week away. How about some tips to go green this Halloween?

1. Use the WHOLE pumpkin: Don’t just carve it and throw it in the trash November 1st. Use the pumpkin seeds and the carved out pieces for food. Pumpkin seed recipes are all over the web and make for a delicious snack. Puree the pieces of pumpkin you carved out for recipes that call for fresh pumpkin. And if you have a backyard compost pile, throw the rest of the pumpkin in there after Halloween.

2. Skip the expensive costumes: Save some cash by avoiding those expensive plastic costumes in the retail store. Make costumes made of reusable or recycled materials. Check out Green Halloween for ideas.

3. Use recyclable bags for trick-or-treating: Avoid using the orange plastic Jack-O-Lanterns that are used for a couple hours and discarded in the trash. This will also save you money too! Reuse plastic bags or even better, how about those cloth bags you have lying around? They’re strong and can hold more candy than you can dream of your kids bringing home for you.

4. DIY Decorations: DIY means Do It Yourself!. Making your own decorations is fun and expands your creativity. Give a little character to your decorations this year. It’s also a fun activity to do with the kids. Great Dad has some great ways to decorate DIY for Halloween.

The Frii is a bike made exclusively out of recycled plastic. This snap together sensation is both lightweight and durable- a true innovation for green design. Mastermind Israeli designer Dror Peleg came up with the concept and design for this recycled 1-speed bike that’s intended for quick trips through the city streets.

Production of the Frii entails using recycled plastic that is melted and injection molded to form each unique part of the bike. The body of the bike is the largest component where at the bottom sits a pedal crank that runs a belt to the rear wheel hub instead of a chain. There are no external brakes- just a BMX style brake system where peddling backwards causes the bike to stop.

Forks to the 20-inch plastic wheels are kept short for added strength. Solid tires are injected over the rims during the manufacturing process. The seat does look uncomfortable but the Frii is not for long, smooth rides. And of course, the colors and modular design are electrifying.

World demand for green packaging is expected to rise 5.7% per year to $212 billion in 2015. We’ve been tracking these projections for a couple of years now. Without becoming redundant, it should be noted that these growth numbers have been consistent. A lot of speculation rose over the green packaging market a few years ago that is was a passing fad. But surviving a terrible world economy is a tell tale sign that the demand is real.

This new growth projection for green packaging comes from a new study by the Freedonia Group. The study shows recycled-content packaging as being the largest product type by far. However, recycled-content packaging will see the slowest increases due to the maturity of products such as metal cans and glass containers. Reusable and degradable packaging will experience above-average growth with degradable packaging in particular seeing double digit annual growth rates. Though degradable packaging’s demand will increase significantly, it will only make up approximately 1% of the overall green packaging market by 2015.

The largest regional green packaging market in the world will remain Asia/Pacific at $79 billion because of its large food and beverage industries. Asia will see some of the fastest growth in India, China,  and Indonesia. Other countries such as Russia, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico will see healthy gains as well.

Accounting for 23% of the green packaging market in 2010, the US has the largest market share by a long shot. Other mature markets can be found in Germany as well as Japan though Japan’s growth is expected to slow down quite a bit.

Stay tuned…..although at this point we can predict the same type of story in the next study.

Bottle schools are schools built from “waste” plastic soda bottles & other inorganic trash. Entire communities work together, young & old, to make the dream of education reality.

A non-profit organization called Hug It Forward is the catalyst uniting these communities in Guatemala where  kids are being taught environmental education and adults learn different types of skilled labor. The result is a wonderful facility, which is a symbol of unity, to educate present and future generations. So far, 10 bottle schools have been built around Guatemala.

The first project in Granados, Guatemala, over 5,000 plastic bottles were used to build two classrooms, containing 2053lbs of trash and using 9720lbs of cement. 297 children and youth currently attend the school, which serves a municipality of 13,860 people throughout 95.75 square miles.

By building with “waste” materials, leveraging the volunteer labor of the community, and by ensuring that 100% of donations are spent on projects (no money is taken for overhead or salaries), Hug It Forward can build a two-classroom school for around $12,000.

It’s lighter than a magazine, easy to set up, holds a person up to approximately 200 lbs, and is made out of corrugated box material. So what is it? It’s Chair In The Box. Yes, a simple box that is opened and easily folded to make a chair.

The chair is very functional. The corrugated boards are composed of recycled secondary fibers like used newspapers and old boxes. There are several environmental benefits with Chair In The Box. It encourages the use of recycled materials and helps in saving paper. The product also provides a good alternative option for metal products which are non-renewable resources.

Lego, Mattel, and Disney have recently been facing pressure from Greenpeace to change their packaging. The environmental group accused all three companies of using packaging material sourced from trees that were cleared from the Indonesian rainforest. The materials were coming from Asia Pulp and Paper who Greenpeace calls the worst forest offender in Indonesia. Aside from demanding that the three toy companies quit buying their packaging materials from APP, Greenpeace also called on them to implement new sustainable packaging policies for all pulp and paper products.

In response, Lego has just announced that they’re aiming to reduce the amount of their packaging materials as well as only use pulp and paper products that are FSC certified. Because of their new policy, they will be prohibited from buying packaging materials from APP.

Mattel released a statement confirming that they put a hold on purchasing supplies from APP and have a sustainable packaging policy on the way. Greenpeace however has criticized Mattel’s response due to a lack of timelines and figures.

Disney has yet to respond to the allegations.

The annual Global Green Brands Study revealed that interest in green products has increased significantly in the past year. The research polled over 9,000 people in 8 countries.

Personal care, grocery, and household products still have the greatest presence among companies in the Top Ten Green Brands List which was produced from the survey (See the list below). This is due to the increased intelligence consumers are getting on green products. Interestingly, the study also found that consumers are ready to take their green purchases to the next level by spending money on big ticket items such as cars and technology.

TOP TEN GREEN BRANDS LIST:
1. Seventh Generation
2. Whole Foods
3. Tom’s of Maine
4. Burt’s Bees
5. Trader Joe’s
6. The Walt Disney Company
7. S.C. Johnson
8. Dove
9. Apple
10. Starbucks, Microsoft (tied)

Just like last year’s study, more than 60% of the consumers polled said they wanted to buy products from environmentally responsible companies even if that meant paying more for them. In fact, consumers in developing countries were willing to pay up to 33% more for green products.

PACKAGING STILL A CONCERN
Another interesting finding from the poll was the concern over packaging, especially among US consumers. 71% believe companies use too much material in packaging while about 50% feel that packaging that can be recycled is more important than packaging made from recycled or biodegradable materials. Only 34% of US consumers polled said they consciously purchase products that use less packaging.

Packaging was also critical as a communication tool. Communicating product benefits to US consumers was vital. Packaging helps explain why a product is green and how green a product is. 40% polled say that packaging is their PRIMARY source for information on environmental issues regarding products.