Hey Kermit! It's Easy to Be a Green Retailer!
Hey Kermit! It's Easy to Be a Green Retailer!
By Keith Lee, President, American Retail Supply
Environmentally Responsible Packaging for Retailers
It Has Never Been Easier or Cheaper to Provide Your Customers
with Environmentally Responsible Packaging from Your Store(s)!
Innovation Breakthroughs:
l Plastic bags that are made from recycled plastic, are 100% recyclable and biodegradable.
l Paper bags that are made from 100% recycled paper, 95% of which is post-consumer recycled paper.
l The shrinking global marketplace has made reusable canvas-like bags available at prices that again, were only dreams a couple of years ago.
There are more environmentally responsible alternatives in retail packaging today than ever. The demands from environmentally conscientious retailers and consumers have led to great innovations from the petrochemical industry, wood products industry and packaging manufacturers.
At the leading edge of environmentally responsible retail packaging, you’ll find innovations and prices that were dreams for environmentally responsible retailers only a couple of years ago. Here are three breakthrough products:
l The shrinking global marketplace has made reusable canvas-like bags available at prices that again, were only dreams a couple of years ago.
l Paper bags that are made from 100% recycled paper, 95% of which is post consumer recycled paper.
l Plastic bags that are made from recycled plastic, are 100% recyclable and biodegradable.
Non-Woven Bags That Last Like and Look Like Cloth
These are the bags you see for sale in Grocery Stores. They look like and are as durable as canvas bags but they’re about 1/2 the cost. They’re available in a variety of sizes, shapes, handle lengths, and colors. Resell them in your store(s), or give them away with larger orders or promotions.
Paper Bags Made From 100% Recycled Paper,
95% of This Bag is Made From Post-Consumer Recycled Paper
Paper bags made with recycled content is not news. Manufacturers have been doing that for years. But this new bag made with 100% recycled content with 95% of it being post-consumer recycled content is revolutionary!
Plastic Bags that are made from recycled plastic, are 100% Recyclable and Biodegradable
Like the amount of recycled paper and post-consumer recycled paper in the paper bag above, this plastic is revolutionary!
Over the last few years, the plastic bag industry has been coming up with one alternative after another to address the litter problem and plastic bags. Each time, the alternative was a bag that would degrade -like a corn starch based bag - but if it got mixed with other plastic bags, the whole batch would become non-recyclable. I simply wasn’t excited about these materials because I think a huge part of the solution is recycling plastic bags, with politicians and local governments educating the public in how to effectively recycle plastic bags.
But now, for the first time, the industry has come up with a biodegradable plastic bag that is also recyclable! So you have all of the advantages of plastic bags - including 100% recyclable - and the bag will biodegrade if it ends up as litter, or in a landfill. We are really living in a great time when technology can answer this kind of issue!
Here’s how the new technology works:
By adding a unique biodegradable additive produced by ECM BioFilms to the plastic film, accelerated degradation of the material can be achieved starting in approximately 9 months when exposed to environments where other organic materials biodegrade. With the additive, the plastic biodegrades into its natural elements of carbon dioxide, water and inert humus like minerals necessary for plant life.
100% Recyclable with Post-Consumer and Post-Industrial Recycled Material
Plastic bags with the ECM biodegradable additive do not contaminate recycling efforts like the corn starched based bags do. In addition, they don't divert farm land from producing food for people to making corn for bags and gasoline.
But how do they make the bags recyclable and biodegradable? During the heating process in the recycled film’s production, the active properties of the ECM additive are destroyed allowing the bag to be mixed with other recyclable plastics.
Click here to see many categories of environmentally responsible packaging that we carry at American Retail Supply.