What Makes These Mailers Sustainable?

Our Globe Guard Pop and Load Mailers are made out of our 100% recycled content corrugated board or 100% recycled content paper board, and of course they are 100% recyclable after their use. However, they are also sturdy enough that they are often re-used for a second, third or return shipment, which makes them even better than any single use envelope or box.

The material (board) composition is far from the only reason these mailers are excellent green packaging:

• The unique shape “pinches” the product n place, immobilizing it and eliminating the need for costly or time consuming void fill
• The contoured shape creates excellent crush zones on all four corners, protecting the product and eliminating the use of cushioning materials.
• It requires a minimum of tape to seal it and usually one small tab of tape does the trick. This saves tape and labor and also improves the likely hood the mailer will be re-used.

Why “Pop and Load”?  Many Reasons, Including Labor Savings!

The name comes from the way they easily open up when you squeeze the sides toward each other. That makes the loading process extremely simple and quick. After the product is inserted, release the pressure on the sides and they return to shape, holding the product firmly in place with no laborious void fill or cushioning product necessary.

Compare this to the time and labor involved in forming and taping RSC style boxes, die cut mailers or even stuffing and sealing plastic or paper envelope mailers and you will agree Globe Guard Pop and Load Mailers are an incredibly labor efficient way to ship product out.

Great, Green Packaging Product and Applications

A well known marketing company recently sent out thousands of printed, re-usable, eco-friendly shopping bags in our Pop and Load Mailers. They were looking for something very eco-friendly and unusual that would stand out in the recipients’ mail “in basket”. Since the product was soft goods, we were able to use a light weight, 100% recycled, 26 pt. paperboard to make their mailers which helped reduce their cost and amount of waste that will ultimately be created.

For a different application, we used a sturdier E flute corrugated to protect a thick, hardbound book for shipment via UPS. In E-flute, the package was virtually indestructible and once again, the objective was to make the book arrive safely with minimal packaging and absolutely no bubble wrap or other interior packaging.

One Size and Style Fits All? Hardly.

We carry a wide variety of different containers for shipping because every customer, product and objective is different. The more options you have, the more likely you are to get the job done, with green packaging products, at a reasonable cost.

Globe Guard Pop and Load mailers are just one more tool in our fast growing tool box of sustainable packaging solutions for packaging books, DVD’s, CD’s, soft goods, and personal care products, to name just a few possible applications.

Please contact us if you are interested in learning more or seeing a sample.

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Visit the Globe Guard Eco Friendly Packaging Store for -

Eco Friendly Corrugated Boxes

Eco Friendly Shipping Supplies

Special Deals on Packaging Supplies

and more!

The theme of that article was that in many cases, a combination of two, easily separated and sorted materials is a much better sustainable solution compared to one material that is not as eco–friendly or as easily recycled.

The key to that theory and statement is “easily separated and sorted”. Recently I have been seeing a rash of two material packaging products being sold under a green flag that are absolutely terrible in terms of sustainability. They are virtual green dead ends because the final outcome will always be a land fill.

Eco Dead End Products

A terrific example of this is the cushioned or lined mailer envelope. The make and model is not important or whether the mailer is lined with foam or a bubble product. If the liner is fused to the paper, no one is going to separate and recycle either material so the whole mailer winds up in the trash. The mailer in the photo brags about its 100% recycled paper with 25% PCR. Don’t get me wrong.  I think it is wonderful that they are using recycled content paper. However I know the unsuspecting public is buying this product, thinking they are doing a good thing for the environment and not even realizing that since it is lined with a plastic bubble cushion inside, it cannot and will not ever be recycled.

A Great Alternative to a Box, in Theory

“Wait a minute – this is just the box salesman trying to sell more boxes”.  Not really.  If you have read this blog for any length of time, you have probably read about as many posts on our box alternative products  as you have about our Globe Guard 100% recycled (100% PCW) boxes. In fact, we have helped many large companies substantially reduce their corrugated use.

We even offer unpadded mailing envelopes on our web store www.GlobeGuardProducts.com and will special order padded mailers, custom size or printed. Please keep in mind, this is not an anti-foam or bubble post, this is an anti-anything that is not recyclable, especially on a product designed for one time use.

Protection and Ecology Can Co-Exist

If your product really requires cushioning – and you would be very surprised at how many green soft goods ship unnecessarily in a padded mailer – you have some very good, green options including:

1. Paper mailers with a layer of shredded paper for cushioning. 100% paper recycles well anytime and anywhere.
2. Mailers with plastic outer shell and plastic foam or bubble cushioning. Perhaps not the most “eco obvious” option but is 100% plastic and can easily be recycled.
3. Paper mailers with an ancillary paper packaging product used for cushioning.

Option #3  is growing in popularity because many of these mailers are hand loaded so wrapping the product, being shipped only when necessary, in a tissue or other cushioning or protective paper product can easily and quickly be accomplished.

Since most of these mailers wind up in mail boxes at homes, it is great when the end result can be easily recycled in any neighborhood curbside recycling program.

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Visit the Globe Guard Eco Friendly Packaging Store for -

Eco Friendly Corrugated Boxes

Eco Friendly Shipping Supplies

Special Deals on Packaging Supplies

and more!