Environmental Responsibility
One of the core company values at Sunrise Packaging is serving our community and our customers.
A large part of this value is practicing environmentally-friendly behaviors that protect our environment, our community and our clients. We have accomplished this over the years through our industrial recycling program and other initiatives in diverse departments of our company.
The following information details what Sunrise Packaging is currently doing to help the environment with regard to our:
- Energy audits
- We undergo voluntary annual audits by our utility providers to find ways to reduce our energy usage.
Our latest electricity audit led to an overhaul of the lighting system of our manufacturing plant. We are now using more energy efficient and eco-friendly lighting.
- Bio-Plastics & Eco-Friendly Plastics
- We offer materials that look and feel like typical plastics but are made from renewable or sustainable materials.
The following are a few examples: - Starch based plastics - The most widely used bioplastic. One common starch based plastic is PETG, it has high stiffness, hardness, and toughness. It is good for thermoforming, a specialty of Sunrise.
- Polylactide acid (PLA) plastics - Polylactide acid (PLA) is a transparent plastic produced from cane sugar or corn starch. It not only resembles conventional plastics in its characteristics, but it can also be processed easily on standard equipment that already exists for the production of conventional plastics. It is transparent, has a melting point higher than 130 degrees Celsius and is biodegradable without residue.
- Bio-derived polyethylene - A Bio-Plastic whose chemical composition is close to ethanol, which can be produced by fermentation of sugar cane or corn. Bio-derived polyethylene is virtually identical to traditional polyethylene - it does not biodegrade but can be recycled. It can also considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Click here for a table comparing several recycled and bio-plastics to traditional PVC
- Inks
- We use eco-friendly UV inks.
- The alternative is solvent ink that contains large amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are dangerous to the environment and to humans who work with these inks. UV inks contain little or no solvent and are thus environmentally friendly and safer to use. (Read a whitepaper on UV inks by Mike Ukena of the Printers' National Assistance Center)
- Renewable soy-based inks are also available.
- Chipboard & Fiberboard
- Most of our products are made rigid by using chipboard (look at the back of a pad of paper for an example of chipboard). This material is made from recycled paper and is curb-side recyclable also.
- Fiberboard is used to make mailing envelopes and corrugated boxes for shipping. Fiberboard is a wood based product and is renewable and curb-side recyclable.
- Glues & Adhesives
- Sunrise offers biodegradable glues made from renewable resources like starch, corn and soy. (more information on biodegradable polymers & adhesives can be found in an article by Edward M. Petrie from Adhesives Magazine)
- Recycled Materials
- All of our products can be made from recycled materials. All of our suppliers offer recycled materials that we can use to make your product. The amount of post-consumer versus post-industrial recycling content will vary.
- Chipboard - 100% recycled content
- Paper - up to 100% post-consumer recycled content
- Vinyl and PVC - up to 98% post-industrial recycled content
- Poly - poly made from recycled milk bottles available
- Recyclable Materials
- All types of materials used by Sunrise are recyclable. Some components can be curbside recycled other components may involve a drop-off recycling center or scrap metal facility.
- Chipboard - - curbside recyclable
- Paper - curbside recyclable
- Vinyl and PVC - return product to Sunrise for break-down and recycling
- Poly - curbside recyclable
- metal - recycle at a scrap metal center
- Industrial Recycling
- We recycle scrap material leftover from the manufacturing process:
- Paper
- Vinyl & PVC
- Chipboard
- Fiberboard and Cardboard
- Metal
- Marketing
- Our marketing efforts center on using e-mail and the internet rather than direct-mail marketing. By making our promotional flyers and catalogs available via e-mail, we save printing costs, you eliminate the time waiting for them to arrive by mail, and together we save the environment.
- Administration
- We recycle paper fiberboard, and cardboard used in our administration offices
- Other Efforts
- We generate e-mailable "spec sheets".
In addition to being eco-friendly, you get artwork and spec sheets faster.
Return to Green Packaging page.
Read more about what we mean by "green".
Our Green Products
