Plastic Pollution and the Impact on the Food Chain

Plastic bag recycling is often touted as a solution to the environmental damage caused by plastic bags, but it just isn’t that simple. Through increased education and outreach programs, plastic bag recycling is in fact on the rise. However, recycling plastic bags is not as efficient (they get stuck in the machinery) or effective as recycling other materials such as paper or glass. There are a wide variety of plastics out there and different types of plastic require different handling and processing for recycling. Throw into the mix the fact that plastic bags are often contaminated with food or other forms of waste, which complicates the handling and recycling process, and what seemed like a good idea, becomes a massive undertaking.

Get Organized and Promote Your Brand with the Bagonizer

Keep Reusable Bags Neatly Bundled and Ready to Go The Bagonizer is a handy device that makes it easy to grab your reusable shopping bags when you head to the store. Simply wrap up to 6 reusable bags together and clip them into the Bagonizer and you have a convenient bundle to toss in your […]

Power Up with Green Energy

p>Green energy can mean a couple different things. Clean and efficient energy options fall under the definition of green energy, as well as sustainable options and combined heat and power. The advantages of going green are many – it allows you to stabilize or maybe even lower your energy expenses and the environmental toll is minimal to non-existent.

Green energy reduces the amount of power needed to create more energy units, so overall less energy is used. Using less energy reduces or eliminates greenhouse gas emissions which improve air quality and public health. Simple things like switching to energy efficient light bulbs can allow you to better use resources and save money, while bigger changes like using solar, wind or biomass power can have a greater impact not only on your bottom line but also on the environment.

5 Ways to Increase Brand Recognition

Brand recognition is a measure of the percentage of your target demographic that is aware of your brand. The logic is straightforward: the more of your ideal demographic that is aware of your brand, the more business will be directed your way. Getting your brand out there and getting noticed can seem like an imposing task, but it doesn’t have to be hard. A few key steps can help you increase your brand recognition, and by default, your customer base and sales.

How to Use Social Media to Engage Your Followers and Spread Your Environmental Message

Social media is a great tool to create a loyal online community for your brand and share your company’s products and message. Social media allows you to spread your message in real time and keep like-minded folks up to date and engaged with your brand. Social media is also a great forum to showcase the things your company does for the environment and your community.

How to Make Your Brand Or Business Memorable?

Create a truly memorable business card or marketing mailer by having your next batch printed on made in the USA, eco-friendly, custom seed paper. Seed paper is exactly what it sounds like it is – paper with embedded seeds that sprout into beautiful wildflowers. Simply plant the paper in a pot with soil or directly in the ground and about a week or so later, wildflowers will sprout and your client or customer will be left with beautiful flowers to remind them of your message, company or brand. Factory Direct Promos features a stunning selection of 21 colors to choose from and a variety of soy-based ink colors so you can create something that captures your branding and message, but is different, exciting and green, both literally and figuratively.

3 Ways to Green Your Break Room

When you add it all up people spend a lot of time at work, and because of this the typical office cranks out a lot of garbage. There is the expected rubbish, like the unclaimed pages on the printer and spent coffee grounds, but there is also the unnecessary garbage, like single use plates, cups, and utensils. It is completely understandable as to why disposable items are popular in an office kitchen and break room right? There is just something about the office that causes people to not clean as thoroughly. Maybe they think the next person will finish scrubbing where they left off or they hope someone else will put the finishing touches on the dishes stacking up in the sink. Whatever the reasons, your office break room presents a huge opportunity to go green.

Corpus Christi Urges Retailers and Residents to Fix Litter Problem

Corpus Christi, Texas has a litter problem. While the litter is varied, plastic bags are a main component and the City spends about $190,000 annually cleaning up disposable plastic shopping bags lifted by gusts of wind from the city landfill. Not only is the litter an eyesore, but the cleanup is expensive and the litter does not do any favors for the tourism industry, which is a vibrant part of the local economy given the City’s prime location on the beautiful Corpus Christi Bay.

Cleveland Collaborating with County to Reduce Plastic Bags

Cuyahoga County in Ohio is home to the City of Cleveland and both municipalities are joining forces in the fight against plastic bags. As has been seen time and time again getting rid of plastic bags is no easy task and the City and County Councils are working with the county health department, solid waste district and community activists to figure out how to completely
do away with plastic bags. The City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County want to stop the use of plastic bags and they understand the enormity of this undertaking. They hope that by working together they can pool their ideas and resources and make plastic bags a distant memory.

Litter Causes Street Shutdown

A stray plastic bag recently caused a street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to be shut down. No one knows for sure where the bag came from, but the discarded bag was stuck in a tree and a resident of a building near the tree alerted police to a ‘suspicious’ looking plastic bag. Emergency crews blocked off the street to vehicle and pedestrian traffic and had residents and employees from local businesses remain indoors while they investigated for about an hour until the situation was deemed safe and the street was re-opened. In the end it was determined that the plastic bag contained a battery with wires attached to it – this most certainly added to the suspiciousness of the ordeal.

Build with Bags Helps the Environment and Communities

The Iowa Grocery Industry Association (IGIA) decided something had to be done about the disposable plastic bag problem. The bags are eyesores which are seldom recycled as they should be, and instead they float around as litter or take up space in landfills. Many municipalities implement bans of the bags, and while that may work for some people in some places the IGIA felt that was not the best fit and solution for the folks of Iowa. The IGIA came up with an ingenious plan of action and created the Build with Bags program. They secured sponsorships from some likeminded organizations, including Keep Iowa Beautiful, the Des Moines Area Metro Waste Authority, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and The Des Moines Register and they laid out a plan.

The Facts Behind Plastic Bag Recycling

A recent study confirmed that while 91% of Americans have access to recycling plastic single use bags locally, most do not. The study was conducted by Moore Recycling Associates Inc. and focused on flexible polyethylene film, of which disposable plastic bags are made. It turns out there are over 15,000 locations throughout the United States where disposable plastic bags can be dropped off for recycling. Most of these designated drop-off locations are at stores. Many major retailers, such as Target and Wal-Mart, place bins near the door where shoppers can deposit their old bags as they make their way into the store.

Establish Customer Loyalty with Eco-Friendly Promotional Gear

Promoting your brand can seem like a hassle and you may ask yourself how useful is it really to print your company’s logo on some tchotchkes? It turns out it can be very useful. Printing your logo on a commonly used item is a great marketing ploy because every time your clients reach for the item they will be reminded, at least subconsciously, of your brand. Particularly useful items that people will use again and again will have that many more opportunities to stamp your marketing message on their mind and increase your brand recognition. Creating a stellar promotional item is more than just picking a neat or practical item and slapping your logo on it. Think about items your customer base will be interested in or have a need for and will find value or use in. Also think about the materials the product is made from and how that will shape people’s opinion of the item and by extension your company.

Sustainable Properties of Bamboo

It is understood that reusable bags are safer on the environment, but once you decide to make the switch to reusable bags your decisions do not end there. Reusable shopping bags are definitely better for the environment than disposable plastic bags, but not all reusable bags are the same. Bags constructed from bamboo offer an unparalleled level of sustainability and eco-friendliness.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Located in the Pacific Ocean are a number of circular currents that run several thousand miles wide and are known as the North Pacific Gyre. Most vessels making the journey between the mainland United States and Hawaii typically try to avoid this high-pressure system in the central Pacific Ocean because the water lacks the nutrients necessary for fruitful fishing and it lacks the wind needed to propel vessels relying on the winds power to thrust them across the ocean. Trash and debris that find its way into the ocean from Pacific Rim countries travel via these currents and accumulate about 1,000 miles off the California coast all the way to the coast of Japan into what has come to be known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Choosing Reusable Bags Over Paper Bags

Plastic bags have come under fire lately, as they should. Resources are drained to create these bags and only a small percentage ends up being recycled, leaving the rest to either sit in landfills or litter streets, parks, and wildlife habitats. To put an end to the environmental and financial havoc plastic bags wreck on the world many cities have taken to banning plastic bags to encourage the use of reusable shopping bags. Many such bans include a section concerning paper bags. A typical ban consists of a straight out prohibition of plastic bags, but allows paper bags to be

Facebook builds a “green” data center on the edge of the Arctic Circle

Facebook, the biggest name in social networking, announced the plans to build an eco-friendly server farm in the small town of Lulea in Sweden. One may wonder why the California-based Facebook decides to go all the way to Europe for their newest data center.

Throw your paper on the ground, not into the trashcan

The amount of daily paper consumption worldwide is shocking. Even if there are numerous of ways to cut down the “cutting down” of trees – sending e-mails rather than printed memos, recycling all the used paper in your home and office, or using both sides of each sheet – we cannot entirely eliminate the use of paper.

10 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Corporate Event’s Carbon Footprint

You don’t have to be a Green company to put effort into lowering your event’s carbon footprint; you just have to be a responsible one. With so many moving parts when putting together a corporate event, the event’s CO² emissions may be last on the list.