Talking "Green"
What do we mean when we say we that our packaging is "Green?"
What is the difference between "sustainable" and "eco-friendly?"
Here is a list with information on the shades of meaning behind the term "Green":
- 100% Recycled Packaging
- is made completely from recycled materials. This could be any combination of post-consumer materials and post-industrial raw materials.
- For example we offer some products that are made from plastic that comes from recycled milk bottles.
- Recyclable Packaging
- means the individual parts of the product can be recycled, if broken down.
The two major categories are Post-Consumer Recycling and Post-Industrial Recycling
- Consumer Recycling
- Recycling that can be conducted at home. When a consumer is finished with a product, they may choose to throw it away and to be put in a land fill or they may choose to recycle or donate the product to be reused by someone else:
- Curb Side Recyclable Products that can be put into a consumer's home recycling bin to be collected on "trash day". Newspapers, plastic, and aluminum cans are the most common examples of recyclables collected curbside.
- Drop-Off Center Recyclables Products that need to be dropped off at a collection site. There is generally no charge to drop off these items that cannot be sent to a landfill.
Obsolete electronic equipment and batteries are the most common items collected at drop-off centers - Buy-Back Center Recyclables Products that need to be dropped off at a collection site. The consumer is usually paid for the materials they no longer need.
Scrap Metal is the most common recyclable that buy-back centers collect.
- Industrial Recycling
- The recycling of materials that are left over after the manufacturing process.
For example when we make vinyl binders, there is about a 1/8" to 1/4" strip of vinyl that is removed from the outside edge to improve the appearance of the binder. - Environmentally Friendly Packaging or Eco-Friendly Packaging
- The most common "green" term. It signifies that a company has significantly reduced the resources required to make a packaging product. So, if a product was made with less plastic or a better material, it is environmentally friendly.
- Biodegradable Packaging
- Packaging that is made from materials that will disintegrate over time without adverse effects to the soil, water or atmosphere.
- Paper, Chipboard, and Cardboard are the most common examples.
- Some plastics are biodegradable but they generally require high quantities of heat and long periods of time.
- Sustainable Packaging/Renewable Packaging
- Packaging that is made from materials are made from resources that are easily produced or replaced.
- Wind energy is a renewable resource
- Ethanol is a renewable, corn-based, fuel
- DuPont makes a corn-based plastic alternative called PLA
Comparison of Traditional and Sustainable and Recycled Plastics
Click here for a table comparing several recycled and bio-plastics to traditional PVC
Return to Green Packaging page.
Read more about our eco-friendly efforts.