As consumers and people concerned with the environmental waste problem, secondary packaging should matter to all of us but I believe it is especially important for every traditional or e-commerce retailer of green products, to understand why it is important to them.

During a recent presentation to some new e-commerce green store owners, I offered this list of reasons why: (more…)

I recently met with a large, very eco minded client and I brought up our Globe Guard 100% recycled (PCW) corrugated boxes. She became very interested and indicated she had some doubts about the boxes her current supplier was delivering to her company. The boxes were being touted as “up to 50% recycled content”. We agreed that phrase was carefully crafted for maximum flexibility and minimal responsibility. That specific claim really guaranteed nothing in terms of quantity of recycled content and also did not provide any indication of what type quality of waste is being used to make her boxes.

Not All Sustainable Packaging Is Created Equal

This is not an isolated case. Now that the world is going green, suppliers of packaging products are doing everything they can to put an acceptable if not deceptive green spin on their current products. Being in the business I tend to notice these things and have seen corrugated boxes with large logos printed on them that say something like: “100% recyclable” Don’t most people know that all corrugated is 100% recyclable? Is this a statement that is provide to remind the customer of the box’s recyclability? Or is it intentionally deceptive because many people assume that “recyclable” and “recycled” are interchangeable terms? I can tell you that numerous times, I have met customers who thought their boxes were made of recycled content and were not. (more…)

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A big carbon footprint is an excellent reason to find a new inner packaging material, but not one that arouses passion in most of us. But $5 per gallon gasoline gets everyone’s juices flowing (no pun intended), and that’s another reason - perhaps the most compelling reason - why polystyrene packing peanuts are the wrong void fill material for 2008 and beyond.

Polystyrene packing peanuts are expensive to ship — in fact, considerably more expensive to ship than just about any alternative product on the market.

Peanuts are extremely bulky and lightweight, so freight carriers charge a premium to tote them around. I checked freights cost to ship 5 - 20 cubic foot bags, and the quotes ranged from $110 to $175. Whew! Freight surcharges are a healthy portion of the total, but those aren’t going away any time soon. Want to get a freight estimate for yourself? Use this Roadway freight calculator. Class is 250. Figure 4-5 lbs. per 20 cubic foot bag. You’ll be astounded. (more…)

This blog was created to bring new products to the attention of our readers, whether they are provided by us or not. We welcome companies with new green packaging products to let us know and even if we are not able to help take them to market, we are more than willing to share the news and information with our readers.

100% Recycled Content Air Pillow Void Fill

We are very proud to announce the introduction of Globe Guard™ Inflatable Air Pillows, void fill air pillows made of 100% recycled material. With the help of Automated Packaging Systems Inc., the undisputed leader in the area of plastic bags and bag sealing equipment, we now offer a product with all of the functional benefits of an inflatable product for you and the sustainable packaging advantages your eco conscious customers demand. (more…)

Our blog promised interviews with “difference makers” in sustainable packaging and I can think of few who have had more widespread positive impact than Rider Thompson. He has posted several of our articles on his Sustainable is Good and written articles about us, so now it is my extreme pleasure to now be able to interview him and share his work with our many friends and customers.

DS: Rider, can you tell our readers how you first became involved in this area and what prompted you to start your first blog?
RT: The idea to start Sustainable is Good actually came about as a combination of a number of my interests. I’ve always been concerned and interested in environmental issues – things like consumption and waste, use of resources etc. I come from a background with many ties to advertising and design so I’ve been exposed to that piece – Sustainable is Good is a combination of my interests all focused on a topic that brings them together – packaging. Nowhere do the worlds of conservation, design waste and consumption come together better than packaging. Packaging is a tremendous source of waste just look at your weekly trash to prove that point most of it is packaging of one sort or another. I think packaging is an area where companies/manufacturers, environmental advocates, consumers and government are beginning to come to together and this will continue in the years to come. Plus packaging is fascinating it plays such a significant role in marketing and a consumer’s decision to make a purchase. Today with an increasingly larger group of consumers factoring sustainability into their buying decisions – packaging is at the forefront and is one of the main areas we’ll see these issues play out. (more…)

Here are 25 words of wisdom, for a collection Liz Strauss is putting together. These ideas have been running through my mind a lot lately, perhaps because life has been so hectic in so many ways.

Why does time seem to accelerate as we age?

It could be because we finally appreciate the value

and how precious each day really is.

(Photo - old and young by ezioman on Flickr)

To reduce paper consumption, The ECO-SAFE Foundation offers environmentally friendly printing alternatives for Web site visitors. I recently had a chance to ask ECO-SAFE founder Jason Schultz a few questions about his rapidly expanding program.

1. What is the overall mission of ECO-SAFE?

The mission is to develop and market technologies that help cut down on the volume of paper waste.

2. Your Web site says “We are creating more ECO-SAFE programs, social applications, and web technologies to pursue a greener web. Can you tell us about some of them?

Sure, we have a certified WordPress blog plugin that lets people use the eco-safe delivery methods right from their WordPress powered blog. Also we are finishing up a FireFox extension to give users a button on their browser which will allow them to download, email, or save a PDF version of that given web page. All of the PDF’s generated from the website are dynamic in that they preserve the links, form fields, and other media. This let’s people share the eco-safe PDF and then still interact with the content. We also have other great social networking apps in the works which people can use on their profile pages to allow for eco-safe PDF delivery as well. So, many things in the works. (more…)

Did my title catch your eye? A few years ago it wouldn’t have, because we weren’t all that aware of the going price of crude oil. Didn’t matter much. But today, it matters a lot, and we know it. And therein lies the huge benefit of astronomically high energy costs.

Public awareness.

Apathy is the enemy of democracy. For decades, we’ve allowed our political leaders to hold absurd, grandstanding positions on crucial environmental issues rather than roll up their sleeves and hammer out an actual energy strategy. We can blame our political leaders for shortsighted and misguided policies, but our own ignorance has made it possible. (more…)

I am often asked what secondary packaging is and why I spend so much time writing and talking about it. Before I try to define it, let me say that the reasons I choose to focus on it are because I believe secondary packaging is a major contributor to our waste problem, because it tends to fly below the eco conscious radar, and quite frankly, because no one else is talking about it.

Primary packaging products are the ones designed for retail applications and usually make direct contact with the product being sold. It may be a paperboard carton, a glass jar or a plastic bottle. Even though we do some basic primary package design in select areas such as shrink over wrap or bagging, there are scores of excellent eco focused blogs, magazines and packaging designers that are almost 100% focused on the primary packaging you see on the retail shelf. Perhaps it is this high consumer visibility as well as volume, that makes it deserving of all the attention it receives. (more…)

Dennis Salazar is maintaining a busy schedule promoting sustainable packaging on the Web and all around the U.S. Here’s a schedule of recent and upcoming activities.

June 24, 2008 - Dennis recently did a podcast on Better Process with Ken Rayment. It includes a brief but informative discussion on Salazar Packaging’s new Globe Guard line of 100% recycled (PCW) content boxes.

August, 2008 – “Selling Sustainability”, a new regular column by Dennis Salazar, will debut in the August issue of Contract Packaging magazine, a Summit Publishing publication. (more…)