Thank you to everyone who donated to our Toys For Tots drive in 2011. We had another year of incredible generosity. Count on us to be a drop-off site for the 2012 holiday season as well.
Wishing you a Happy New Year from all of us at Sunrise Packaging!
Polypropylene is a plastic used in a wide range of products like food containers, water bottles, furniture, and car bumpers. It’s also used as a strong, durable packaging solution that gives products a very distinct look.
Currently, it’s the second most widely used thermoplastic with a global consumption of 44 million metric tons in 2008. The market has been growing increasingly and is estimated to be $66 billion. Growth is based on projections that consumers and recycling regulations will drive demand for environmentally-friendly packaging.
While polypropylene is primarily derived from oil, a recent research partnership will be developing a large scale production of polypropylene from sugarcane. While oil is limited and expensive, this green initiative is great news and could mean a big change for the plastics industry. Initial development will run for at least 5 years. The plastic is to be identical to traditional polypropylene except that it is made from sugarcane. Customers will be able to switch to the bio-resin without changing their production machinery or processes.
So who’s partnering up? Braskem, the largest petrochemical company in Latin America, and Novozymes, the world’s leading producer of industrial enzymes. Both companies have a strong devotion to a bio-based economy.
Braskem was the first company in the world to produce a 100% certified green polypropylene on an experimental basis. They’re currently building a green polyethylene plant in Brazil with ethanol and sugarcane as the raw material. The plant will produce 200,000 tons per year.
Novozymes is the world leader in bioinnovation. They use biotechnology to improve the use of resources in more than 30 industries around the world; the biofuel industry is one of them. Currently, they’re producing enzymes to turn agricultural waste into advanced biofuels.
Did you know that leaving your phone charger plugged into the wall, regardless if your phone is plugged in or not, draws electricity? I didn’t. In fact, most mobile users are unaware of this. In the U.S., it’s enough to power 24,000 homes per year, or brew three to four million cups of coffee each day*.
Introducing AT&T’s Global First Automatic ZERO Draw Charger. Available only in AT&T stores in May 2010, the charger does not waste any power when left plugged in. Additionally, it improves charging efficiency when powering a device. It also features a “block and cable” design for maximum interchangeability, allowing customers to use the same charger for future handsets. Over time this will cut the number of chargers being produced, thus reducing future landfill waste.
How does it work? The Zero Charger works by automatically sensing when a mobile phone is not plugged up to the charger and cutting the power supply from the wall socket. Pretty nifty!
The cost of the unit will be the same as existing replacement chargers which is great news for customers and more reason to change to a greener solution. The charger will be sold in packaging with 100% recycled paper. AT&T recently announced a transition to smaller and more eco-friendly packaging for the wireless device accessories. The change means elimination of more than 60% of the paper and more than 30% of the plastic previously used for AT&T’s accessory products.
*Energy saving calculations based on the following assumptions by AT&T: 277 million wireless users in U.S., minimum one phone per user; user charges device 3 to 4 times per week for 8 hours; 80% of users leave charger plugged in wall socket; average charger wastes 170 mW (0.17 watts) when idle.
View the press release here
Do you have a nickname?
No
Last book you read?
Meditation, Eknath Easwaran
If you could meet anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
Mother Teresa
Favorite hobby?
Writing/playing music and hanging out with my wonderful wife Jenny and my lovely daughter Leona.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be? Why?
That’s a toss up. Teleportation because I love to travel. Saving time and money on airline tickets would increase my probability of seeing the world! Superhuman Vision would be nice too. I was born with very poor vision and cannot get lasik in my right eye. Waking up in the morning able to see would be a treat!
What attracted you most to working at Sunrise?
The opportunity to learn more about marketing and make an impact towards the company’s goals.
Here at Sunrise we love progress. Especially when it involves the environment, so a recent blog post at Ecogeek sparked our interest. The post brought a cool invention to our attention. The design of the recycing robot by Osaka University and Mitsubishi Electric Engineering Co. They have created a robot with laser-sensing technology that can differentiate six different types of plastic from all other garbage. The 5-foot 6-inch by 6-foot 9-inch machine identifies the plastic materials by analyzing the reflectivity of five different wavelengths of lasers on the materials.
The purpose of the robot is to streamline the recycling process and increase the amount of plastic that gets recycled. With this robot taking care of that sorting, people can recycle with the assurance that the robot will take care of the details.
Although at 55,000 dollars this isn’t exactly being marketed as a home sorting device it certainly has a lot of potential for industrial sites.
For more information please visit
Jazzing up your company catalog isn’t a quick process. It takes a lot of thought, opinion polling, and research to try and get it right. Here are a few tips in creating an effective catalog.
1.The first tip is to not try and jam everything into a few pages to be cost effective. This will overwhelm your customer and will likely leave the pictures too small. Instead try weaving white space effectively into your design. This is especially true for photos that you want to draw the customer’s attention.
2. Another way to create an effective catalog is to create consistency from page to page. A layout that your customer finds easy to navigate will certainly help this process.
3. Finally, ensure that the color scheme is in sync with the color scheme of the company. This means company cards, website, etc. This should be a continued branding effort. Therefore it should be a continuation of what the company looks like not a deviance from it.
For more information please visit:
Do you have a nickname?
No
Last book you read?
1984, George Orwell
If you could meet anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
Leonardo Da Vinci- He was an amazing artist and had a great mind.
Favorite Hobby?
Music – playing violin/piano. Oil painting & Drawing
If you could have a superpower, what would it be? Why?
Not needing sleep- I’m not sure if that can be claimed as a superpower but I would be able to get everything I wanted to done!
What attracted you most to working at Sunrise?
The opportunity and the work experience.
With the invention of MP3 players and online music stores you may not be buying CD’s anymore. However, that doesn’t solve the problem of what to do with all of the old CD cases from when you were. Luckily a few creative minds have come up with some options to put those cases back into use. These alternative uses can be more than just Saturday morning art projects for your kids, although that is a possibility too.
1. The jewel case poster display.
This is a project you’ll want to make sure you layout and measure carefully before moving ahead with the cutting. It’s the old cliche, measure twice cut once. This is done by taking a poster of your choice and cutting it into sections that fit into the CD case. The cases are then hung on the wall to recreate the poster with a little edge and artistic twist. It seems to work especially well for music posters, but the sky is the limit.
2. The CD case photo collage.
In order to create the collage simple print out photos you want to incorporate and place them individually in cases. Then attach them to the wall with wall putty in whatever order you want. Photos that are printed in black and white and then placed in colored jewel cases take on an especially unique and cool look.
3. Create a Book- Kid’s style
Kid’s love art projects. They especially love art project where they can show off their decorating, drawing and writing skills all at once. Creating a book out of old CD cases is perfect. Allow them to decorate the case with stickers and whatever else they may find interesting to create the cover. Then cut pages that fold and fit into the CD case. Attach it by double-stick taping the front and back page to the cover or by gluing it.
For more information and ideas visit:
After much anticipation over 2010′s color of the year the winner is Turquoise as announced by Pantone Color Institute. It is said to be both an inviting and luminous hue. This color shies away from the vibrant yellow of last year. In case you are wondering how these experts choose the color of the year, they say that it is chosen based off of years of research from word-association studies.
This is what Pantone’s executive director had to say about the color turquoise. “It is believed to be a protective talisman, a color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky. … we also find that Turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them to a tropical paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.”
Some of the most beautiful items in the world are turquoise, including the turquoise color of a Caribbean sea, and turquoise jewelry made by master craftsmen. And if anyone is an expert in color, you can bet it’s Pantone!
For more information visit:
The loved and occasionally loathed packaging shell, commonly called clamshell, is a product with a lot of positive as well as negative reviews. Manufacturers and store owners appreciate the perfectly protected shell around precious products. Customers reach for that new flashdrive, phone charger or other shelled item appreciating the fact that it sits where it is supposed to, untampered with. However, the appreciation of knowing it’ll make it home safely sometimes fades to the frustration experienced when trying to open it.
So why does packaging that sometimes leaves you frustrated continue to find it’s way onto our shelves? The simple answer is because it looks nice and it works. Does a shoplifter really want to experience all of that? Of course not, simply put, these shells reduce theft while at the same time showing customers the benefits of the product they are about to purchase.
Additionally, your product was also able to make the journey from one area of the world to your house or business without injury which is something that isn’t always easily attainable in other packaging designs.
For more information or to purchase packaging products, please visit our website:
