Our readers know I am a sucker for a good, green story and I have a great one to share with you today. I know Allison as owner of Rogue Element, one of Chicago’s top green design companies. She is also a fellow member of Green America Business Network and the Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance.

This interview, however, is focused on her new company called Squishy Press and the unique product line she and her husband Rob, just introduced at the Green America Green Festival held in Chicago last weekend.

DS: Allison, please tell our readers about Squishy Press and how you and Rob came up with this great idea.

AM: For years we’d been thinking that we should come up with some sort of retail product to sell that Rogue Element would design. Many designers make greeting cards, wrapping paper, gift tags, and the like to try something new and stretch their creative chops. But we could never think of anything to make that really combined our love of design and sustainability. We even had a section of our website up for a long time that kept saying “products coming soon” that we eventually took down!

Then in 2008 we had our son. As babies tend to do, he put everything in his mouth. We were able to find safe diapers, organic clothing, even nontoxic carpet . . . but not books. And what parent doesn’t want their child to have books? As he chewed on them, we were dismayed at how he would ingest the foils and laminates. We were talking one day in our kitchen about how we knew that the printing industry didn’t always use the safest materials. Then Rob looked at me and said, “We’re designers. We should design our own books!” And Squishy Press was born.

Design-wise, we knew we wanted to improve upon some of the picture books we’d seen, since many of them have terrible photography and illustrations. So we contacted our talented photographer friend Steven Gross to see if he wanted to work with us. We then engaged a printer that could deliver the greenest product possible. We even spoke with the ink and paper manufacturers directly about their processes and products so we could make informed choices.

DS: Tell us what you discovered about where and how baby books are made and how yours are different.

AM: It’s hard to truly discover how most baby books are made, since they are all printed overseas. We actually couldn’t find one printed in the USA. Some claimed to be nontoxic, but when we tried to find out how or why, there was no information available to back up those claims. Many print on recycled paper, and that’s a start, but the positives of that choice get negated if the coatings, inks, and glues are unsafe. Additionally, the shipping of books over great distances hardly helps the carbon footprint.

In February 2009 all toys sold in the United States were required to meet the safety requirements of ASTM F963, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). But children’s books are exempt. We sent our books to an independent laboratory to perform substrate and surface tests for lead and the seven other heavy metals covered under ASTM F963 Standards for Toy Safety. The lab told us that we weren’t required to have tests done, but we asked them to run the tests anyway so we knew where we fell in line with the standards. We are pleased to say that we fell well below the government standards for safety!

DS: One of the first things I noticed is that your books have no text and show photos only. How did you decide to take that approach?

AM: Babies love to look at pictures of other babies. So we thought that by using great photography and our illustration skills to fill in the backgrounds, we could provide pictures of babies done in a different way. As a bonus, it also allows us to get away with not writing any copy.

DS: You’ve launched with two titles. Tell us about those and when we can expect to see additional titles added to the product line.

AM:The first title, Silly Faces, is literally just a book of young kids making silly faces. It’s really fun, and kids love to mimic what they see and try to come up with their own expressions. The backgrounds are illustrated with colorful shapes and patterns.

The second title is Opposites, where we demonstrate the concept of opposites, like hot and cold, wet and dry, etc. Here we used the background illustrations to help reinforce the word that was being demonstrated. For example, the “wet” kid is soaking wet with goggles and a snorkel, and her background has waves and fish. We added the words in the background, so the word “wet” appears as waves. For a more universal appeal, the words appear in three languages — English, French and Spanish. (more…)

Our new oxo-biodegradable film will of course degrade in almost any disposal scenario but it is also recyclable. That may not sound like a major positive point but the fact is that many bio plastics being sold today include additives that make the films unable to be recycled. If you believe, as we do, that the best disposal solution is recycling and considering the wide variety of waste handling programs in different parts of the country, the more flexibility and disposal options you have the better.

Stretch Film Is an Economical Way to Unitize Products

We have been asked by concerned customers, why we wrap our eco friendly corrugated shipping boxes in “plastic” when we ship them out. Hand bundling can be laborious but we feel the benefits outweigh the effort and are always eager to explain what we do and why we do it to anyone who asks. Essentially we wrap our bundles of boxes for three reasons.

1. For shipping costs reduction – by combining two lighter products into one larger package being shipped, a cost reduction is often possible. In addition it makes it less likely that smaller packages will get lost in the process.
2. To unitize – Boxes at a corrugated plant are typically unitized into 25 count bundles and they are held together by one, thin, ¼ strap. The strap is typically applied loosely to avoid damaging the boxes so it does not do a great job of holding the 25 boxes together during shipment. Stretch film does an excellent job of holding the bundle together minimizing product loss during shipment.
3. To protect – we are very proud of the way our 100% PCW corrugated shipping boxes look and we want them to look good for you when you use them to ship out your products. Wrapping the bundle in stretch film minimizes scuffing and damage, especially from moisture and dirt. No one likes wet shipping boxes.

Oxo-Biodegradable Stretch Film – More Upside, Less Downside

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We at Salazar Packaging are very pleased to announce the addition of oxo-biodegradable stretch film to our Globe Guard online green packaging store. It’s another important step forward in our effort to provide the secondary packaging market greener products to help them get the job done.

Well over a billion pounds of stretch film are used annually to secure pallet loads of products being shipped via truck and for bundling applications to unitize two or more products together. Over two years ago I wrote a post on Sustainable Is Good about this extensive use of stretch wrap and how little of it was recycled properly, and usually wound up in our landfills.

Unfortunately little had changed until now and we are thrilled to be able to offer large volume as well as low volume users a more environmentally responsible product for their stretch film requirements.

What Is Oxo-biodegradable Stretch Film?

Oxo degradable plastic films include an additive designed to greatly accelerate their ability to breakdown and degrade regardless of the disposal method or circumstances. An oxo-biodegradable film breaks down fastest in direct sunlight and oxygen but even in a landfill situation, it will typically degrade in less than half the time of traditional stretch films. Most will agree the best disposal method is recycling and the oxo additive does not adversely affect that preferred option.

Plastic films with corn starch or other similar plant based additives are typically NOT easily recycled and usually require moisture to be present as well as oxygen and ideally sunlight. Plant based additives may also often have a negative impact on the physical properties and performance of the plastic film formulation whether the film is used for shrink, bagging or stretch applications.

Our new oxo-biodegradable stretch film is the first eco friendly formulation we have tested for pallet wrapping that still has the necessary elongation, memory and puncture resistance to make it an economical and viable alternative to standard stretch films.

Globe Guard Oxo-Biodegradable Stretch Films are Eco Obvious

All of the oxo degradable films we offer are tinted green so others recognize them as a different and eco friendly film. We also encourage customers to add their own placards on each load being wrapped so their environmental commitment is noticed and hopefully their example followed.

Initially this new product line will feature these three products:

1. Oxo-biodegradable stretch wrap, 80 gauge (20.3 microns), 18” wide, X 1,500’ per roll, packed four rolls per case for hand wrapping and bundling applications.
2. Oxo-biodegradable stretch wrap, 50 gauge (12.7 microns), 20” wide X 9,000’ per roll, packed 40 rolls per skid for machine use applications.
3. Oxo-biodegradable stretch wrap, 63 gauge (16.0 microns), 20” wide X 7,500’ per roll, packed 40 rolls per skid for machine use applications.

Remember over half of our stock products began as specific customer requests so please let us know if you don’t see what you need. Other widths and gauges are available.
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Several months ago I wrote a post for Packaging Digest talking about the importance of being “eco obvious”. Consumers’ perspectives aren’t always fair or accurate; they don’t always read labels so utilizing products that are easily and quickly recognized as eco friendly is vitally important.

Eco Obvious Sustainable Packaging

Few products rate as high as molded pulp on the eco obvious scale. A consumer immediately recognizes it for what it is, which is recycled newspaper molded into a new and usable form. It is also easily recycled just about anywhere.

However, unless you can use a stock item that is mass produced such as trays for 4” round containers or wine bottles, most applications are custom and that usually requires high cost custom tooling. Even though the cost of most molded pulp products is fairly competitive, it is the initial mold and tooling costs that often times prevent packagers from utilizing this great product containment and protection option.

Low Cost Molded Pulp Tooling Option

We are glad to announce a new process created by one of our newest vendors that dramatically reduces the cost of molded pulp tooling. (more…)

What may sound like a story about intoxicated college students on Spring Break is really not that at all. It is about a paper and corrugated box industry that has just announced a second, substantial price increase in less than four months. It’s definitely not fun and the only “wild and craziness” involved here is an effort to try to keep up and minimize fast rising product costs, while many of our customers resist increases and are simply working hard to survive.

Are the Paper and Corrugated Increases Justified?

My personal opinion is no, they are probably not but then again who knows. As a non-manufacturing distributor of corrugated products, our largest competitor is but a flea in the overall market and scope of an industry that measure sales in terms of tons and billions of dollars. There is a lot of industry talk about expired government subsidies, a shoot out between two major mills with the rest of us as innocent bystanders caught in the cross fire and of course the ability of the industry to control pricing by controlling output and production.

The week of January 22nd Pulp & Paper reported an increase of $50 per ton on liner board and the end result was an increase on corrugated boxes that ranged from 6 to almost as much as 10% depending on the manufacturer. This most recent increase announced the week of April 23rd of $60 per ton, is likely have a similar impact in terms of increase percentage on box pricing. (more…)

Retail packaging can be attractive, unique and green – and we have helped many companies create packaging that is eye catching and eco friendly. For example, it’s not easy to stand out in a highly competitive market such as candles, where appearance is every bit as important as recycled content or recyclability, but we provide our customers with options and combinations that few other companies have to offer.

Green Packaging Must be Cost Competitive, Too

We understand that everyone has a price point they have to target depending on where and how they sell their product and of course, manufacturing costs, including ingredients. Packaging costs and appearance requirements differ greatly for products selling over the internet or at a green fair, versus products retailing at a high end boutique.

That is why we specialize in designing to the acceptable cost and will usually offer our design clients a variety of options, different looks and varying costs. Everyone’s needs are unique as is our custom retail, eco friendly packaging.

Wide Range of Solutions because of our Wide Range of Products

Most suppliers represent a manufacturer and have one type of product to offer. Corrugated box suppliers rarely sell paperboard (folding carton) packaging and the opposite is true as well. Neither is likely to offer a paper tube design, even if it happens to be the best option for the customer and application.

The benefit of working with a resource like us is that we are able to not only offer all substrate options, we can provide combinations of material that no one else will ever suggest. Different bases, bodies and lids can sometimes be used to minimize costs and create a truly unique package.

One Example of Unique Variety and Flexibility

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We are very fortunate to work with many new companies or companies with new products requiring green packaging. In many cases however the initial run is relatively short and when or if the job will ever run again is unknown. We also have a number of clients who do promotional type work who know their job is never going to repeat.

Biggest packaging hurdles and expenses – Plates, dies and set up costs

It is not unusual for a tooling and plate cost to run into thousands of dollars depending on the type of print, number of colors and the design of the package being run. That makes it cost prohibitive for many companies, so they resort to labels or other ways of branding their products. The end result often times puts them at a competitive disadvantage in terms of package appearance when consumers are comparing their product to others on the retail shelf or over the internet.

The other factor that comes into play is set up costs and that is what usually makes short runs so expensive. It is the combination of expensive plates, tooling and long set up times being amortized over smaller quantities. Keep in mind the set up time for two thousand printed shipping or retail display boxes is virtually the same as for a two million piece job. Unfortunately the end result is that the highest per unit prices are being paid by the companies who can least afford them.

Digital printing on almost any packaging substrate

Almost any grade or type of plastic or paper material can be digitally printed with virtually any copy and number of colors. Plastic substrates can include polyethylene, polypropylene and even foam board. Paper substrates can be any grade of paperboard or corrugated and they can be printed on white for sharper colors or on natural brown for a more muted effect and a greener end result. The image below shows the difference. While the poster version on the left is brighter, the softer tones on the right are very popular and desirable today for green products and consumers.

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