recycling

How to Assess the Green-ness of Your Green Printing Company

With the transition to digital media being the norm, these days, one has to wonder if printed promotional campaigns can ever be green?

Marrying tried-and-tested marketing methods with the responsibility of being a greener business can seem like a difficult task, particularly at a time when many companies are feeling the strain financially. One of the oldest tools used by companies to promote their products and services are leaflets and brochures, but in a world where sustainability is becoming a key consideration, does the printed promotion still have its place?

In addition to being cost-effective, it’s possible to ensure environmental issues such as sustainability are still considered as part of a traditional leafleting strategy by purchasing promotional flyers from an eco-friendly printing supplier. If you are considering embarking on a traditional leafleting campaign, or would like to produce some printed promotional literature, it’s best to approach potential printing partners armed with a few questions that should help you snag the best deal for you and the environment.

Many businesses are aware that operating as a green business can help them to attract customers, so in order to ensure you yourselves aren’t guilty of greenwashing and that you don’t fall victim to the attempts of others at doing the same, you should establish a few basics. One point to check is whether the green printing company is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council – a not-for-profit organisation that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests. Companies who are certified under the group’s Chain-of-Custody programme use paper that can be tracked right back to certified wood grown in their forests. This means that the paper used to print your leaflets or other promotional materials has been sourced responsibly.

Waste should also be a priority: as well as making sure you don’t order more promotional materials than you need, you should check your green printers’ waste policy.

Flyerzone, an eco friendly printing company, separates waste into seventeen streams for recycling or processing and use vegetable based inks from large drums. Vegetable based inks are less harmful to the environment and pumping from drums rather than using small cartridges minimises the use of packaging. It’s even possible to recycle printing plates – so ask potential printing partners whether they have a recycling policy. In addition to being more environmentally sound, minimising waste makes solid commercial sense as those who use fewer resources are able to keep printing prices low and offer you a good price for their services.

How to Assess the Eco-Friendliness of Your Green Printing Services

Here are a few questions you can ask to assess the eco-friendliness of printing companies:

• Is the paper purchased by the company, from a certified Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) supplier?
• Do you have an environmental management system (EMS) in place? Is it certified to the ISO 14001 standard or verified under the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
• What type of inks do you use in your printing process?
• Do you use cartridges or drums as part of the printing process?
• What do you do with your paper waste?
• How does your business dispose of non-paper waste such as solvents?
• Can you provide assistance or advice if I have leftover printed materials that I need to dispose of?
• Do you recycle your printing plates?
• Do you have schemes in place which reward green ideas from employees?

Beyond the use of promotional printing, keeping waste to a minimum is a good lesson to take into your own workplace; as well as limiting your paper waste you can look to reduce energy use through harnessing natural light in your building, or installing solar energy panels to help you generate your own heat.

Use the lessons learnt in your promotional campaigns throughout your business and familiarise yourself with the waste reduction packaging directive, which tries to minimise the use of packaging, promote energy recovery and encourage recycling. Not only could this gain your business recognition as a green business, it could also net you savings both long and short term.

Green Christmas Gift | Eco-Friendly Dog Bed by P.L.A.Y

We at GEN are undoubtedly animal lovers and for that reason are in the process of opening a cage-free boarding and training facility at our compound in Agua Dulce, CA. Seeing that we’re all about lowering our environmental impact wherever we can, we have been contacting many eco-friendly companies to try out their products for review. Enter P.L.A.Y — or Pet Lifestyle and You — a company dedicated to reducing environmental waste by recycling old bottles and turning them into pet beds. This awesome company offered to send us one of their swanky beds for large breed dogs. We tried it out and here is our honest opinion on their product:

Comfort-

This bed is SUPER plush especially considering it was made with recycled bottles. My husband decided to try it out himself and said that it is not only spacious enough for a person to lay on (in the fetal position, granted!) but its also provides ample cushion to keep him from sinking into our hardwood flooring. He also weighs about 200 pounds, by the way. It should be noted that my business partner purchased a few of Costco brand dog beds to cut costs, which are similar in size — and those beds don’t even come close to the padding that P.L.A.Y provides. Definitely a well made dog bed.

Durability-

About 4-5 dogs have already made their home on the P.L.A.Y bed, and every seam and stitch is completely in tact. In comparison again with Costco brand beds, P.L.A.Y is MUCH more durable – as the former already had snags at the seams before any dog even touched it. Since we’ve only been using the bed for about 2 weeks, it is too early to tell the true durability especially because we haven’t had too many dogs coming in and out of the facility yet. Photo below is comparing the cushion in the Costco brand bed (left) to the P.L.A.Y brand dog bed (right).

Design-

The style of this “Savannah” dog bed in the sepia/dark chocolate color scheme is absolutely stunning. The top of the bed features a glossy, almost elephant skin looking design, but colored to fit the African desert. They also have an ash grey/cool grey option that actually much more resembles elephant skin, but the brown tones were more appropriate for our indoor dog lounge area. This bed could definitely fit the more upscale home decor.

Eco-Friendly Factor-

The best part about P.L.A.Y beds, as we mentioned before, is the fact that they are made to help reduce the world’s environmental waste. An astounding 92 recycled bottles made their way into the polyfiber filling for this particular bed. Not only that, but all the tags on their products are made from F.S.C. certified paper. While it would have been nice to see the entire bed being made out of re-purposed materials, the filling is a good start.

All in all, we couldn’t find too many negative aspects about this bed. However, with a price tag of $189 USD, it seems to be more well suited for the sophisticated dog owner looking to lessen their environmental impact a bit while still considering style.

As required by the FTC: I received no monetary compensation for this review. I received a product sample for the purpose of my review. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.

Green Christmas Gift | Eco-Friendly Dog Bed by P.L.A.Y

We at GEN are undoubtedly animal lovers and for that reason are in the process of opening a cage-free boarding and training facility at our compound in Agua Dulce, CA. Seeing that we’re all about lowering our environmental impact wherever we can, we have been contacting many eco-friendly companies to try out their products for review. Enter P.L.A.Y — or Pet Lifestyle and You — a company dedicated to reducing environmental waste by recycling old bottles and turning them into pet beds. This awesome company offered to send us one of their swanky beds for large breed dogs. We tried it out and here is our honest opinion on their product:

Comfort-

This bed is SUPER plush especially considering it was made with recycled bottles. My husband decided to try it out himself and said that it is not only spacious enough for a person to lay on (in the fetal position, granted!) but its also provides ample cushion to keep him from sinking into our hardwood flooring. He also weighs about 200 pounds, by the way. It should be noted that my business partner purchased a few of Costco brand dog beds to cut costs, which are similar in size — and those beds don’t even come close to the padding that P.L.A.Y provides. Definitely a well made dog bed.

Durability-

About 4-5 dogs have already made their home on the P.L.A.Y bed, and every seam and stitch is completely in tact. In comparison again with Costco brand beds, P.L.A.Y is MUCH more durable – as the former already had snags at the seams before any dog even touched it. Since we’ve only been using the bed for about 2 weeks, it is too early to tell the true durability especially because we haven’t had too many dogs coming in and out of the facility yet. Photo below is comparing the cushion in the Costco brand bed (left) to the P.L.A.Y brand dog bed (right).

Design-

The style of this “Savannah” dog bed in the sepia/dark chocolate color scheme is absolutely stunning. The top of the bed features a glossy, almost elephant skin looking design, but colored to fit the African desert. They also have an ash grey/cool grey option that actually much more resembles elephant skin, but the brown tones were more appropriate for our indoor dog lounge area. This bed could definitely fit the more upscale home decor.

Eco-Friendly Factor-

The best part about P.L.A.Y beds, as we mentioned before, is the fact that they are made to help reduce the world’s environmental waste. An astounding 92 recycled bottles made their way into the polyfiber filling for this particular bed. Not only that, but all the tags on their products are made from F.S.C. certified paper. While it would have been nice to see the entire bed being made out of re-purposed materials, the filling is a good start.

All in all, we couldn’t find too many negative aspects about this bed. However, with a price tag of $189 USD, it seems to be more well suited for the sophisticated dog owner looking to lessen their environmental impact a bit while still considering style.

As required by the FTC: I received no monetary compensation for this review. I received a product sample for the purpose of my review. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.

5 Easy Ways to Live Green

You can make a difference. Making the effort to be more environmentally friendly is easier and cheaper than you realize – and good for both you as well as the environment. Read on for 5 easy ways to do your part.

Recycle.

It is so easy and simple to recycle these days that it’s almost harder not to recycle. Your local council will have provided you with a recycling bin and a calendar so you know which days to put out your recycling.

Have you ever had friends over and they have been confused when they go to throw out something and discover you don’t have a recycling bin? Avoid potential embarrassment and change this as soon as you can!

Glass, plastic, cardboard or aluminum should be recycled wherever possible. If you are unsure, turn the item upside down and look for the green triangle that will let you know if it can be recycled.

Going one step further and making an effort to buy items that are in biodegradable or very little packaging is even better if you can.

Bike or walk.

Cars are the largest contributor to air pollution in the world today and while you can do your best effort to look after your car or invest in a hybrid or greener model, the truly best thing you can do is reduce your car usage altogether! This will save you money AND work wonders for your health.

Switching your drive to work in the morning for a bike will mean you get exercise, fresh air and also save time searching for parking or being stuck in traffic – as well as save you money on petrol.

If biking isn’t your thing, go old school and walk – set yourself a challenge or a limit: if a place is less than 20mins walk away, make it a rule to always walk rather than drive. The more you get used to walking, the easier it will be, the fitter you’ll get, and the cleaner your air.

Cloth bags not plastic bags.

Green bags are very widely available and there is absolutely no reason that you should still be using plastic bags.

Not only are they reusable: they are also convenient. You can fit a lot more in cloth bags, including heavier or sharp items that just tear through plastic bags, and you can use them for pretty much anything.

Make a habit of keeping one handy at all times: there’s nothing more frustrating than heading to the supermarket and realizing you have left these bags at home. Constantly buying enviro bags is just as bad – if not worse – as constantly using plastic bags, and defeats the purpose.

Support eco businesses.

While it’s very easy now for businesses to practice greener habits, to recycle, to buy and stock environmentally friendly products and use eco promotional bags: it’s typically not the cheapest option for them.

Those businesses that are environmentally responsible are making a conscious effort and investment – and we are consumers are responsible in helping make their efforts worthwhile.

There are still so many businesses out there that, no matter what, will always choose the cheapest and easiest option because they only care about the bottom line.

The more we demand that businesses turn green, support those that do and avoid those that don’t, the sooner businesses will relent to pressure and start introducing more environmentally friendly practices.

Encourage your friends.

As one individual you may not think that your efforts alone can have a significant effect: but if you spread the word to your family, friends and all others you know, you can create a ripple effect and soon there will be an extra 100 or 1000 people practicing eco-friendly habits – all thanks to you!

Lead by example and become conscious of how others might be inspired by your habits – and encourage them to do the same.

5 Amazing Structures Made from Plastic Bottles

1. EcoARK

The innovative and very impressive EcoARK in Taiwan is a monument to recycling. The three-story tall building, complete with an amphitheater and exhibition hall, was constructed using 1.5 million plastic bottles. Embedded solar power helps to run the building’s magnificent LED light displays at night. The Far Eastern Group, which commissioned the building, wanted to highlight the importance of reusing and recycling in a country where, according to The China Post, the plastic bottle recycling rate is only four percent.

2.Plastiki

Last year, Plastiki, the boat made from 12,500 plastic bottles, crossed the Pacific Ocean – from San Francisco to Sydney – in about four months. The boat was made from mostly recycled materials, including the plastic bottles, reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipe and hand-made PET cloth, which was used for the sail.

3. Hug It Forward

Hug It Forward does many things, but one fundamental aspect of their community empowerment focus is the bottle school. The organization works with communities in Guatemala to collect littered plastic bottles and build schools out of the waste. Not only does this program help clean up the environment, it also helps communities join together and build something with long-term positive potential. Learn more about Hug It Forward and their bottle schools here.

4. Midwest Floating Island

Midwest Floating Island uses recycled plastic bottles in their water purification systems, which are basically little islands “designed to support vegetation above the waterline and beneficial microbial habitat below,” according to the website. So, not only do these islands reuse plastic bottles, they also provide habitat and clean the water. Recently, the floating islands were used to help clean Spring Lake in Minneapolis.

5. Sustainable Communities Initiatives

Sustainable Communities Initiatives in Scotland designs and helps build greenhouses made from plastic bottles. This project has been incorporated especially in schools, because the children learn not only how to built the structure, but also the importance of reducing and reusing. But anyone can do it; you just need hundreds of plastic bottles, a little know-how and a few hours of hard work.

Editor’s Note: Earth911 partners with many industries, manufacturers and organizations to support its Recycling Directory, the largest in the nation, which is provided to consumers at no cost. The International Bottled Water Association is one of these partners. Article originally posted on Earth911.com.