In an unprecedented move, the Globe Guard Eco Consistency Award judges held a first ever midyear caucus and by unanimous vote decided to give Home Depot this prestigious award. OK, that all sounds quite impressive but the fact is that my wife took me shopping for the seasonal purchase of flowers for her garden and I spotted this sign.

That is when I realized Home Depot has launched an excellent, green program to encourage and facilitate the return of the empty flower containers they now sell.

Polystyrene – The Plastic Even Waste Management Doesn’t Want

What makes this move by Home Depot award worthy is that most flower pot containers are made of polystyrene (Recycled code #6). Most of us know polystyrene as the foam looking plastic material often used for takeout or left over containers, some “foam” drinking cups and some loose fill packaging materials shaped like shells or peanuts. That happens to be reason #42 why I hate foam peanuts, but that is a sore subject and a different blog post.

I am not sure why most floral containers are made of styrene but I am willing to bet it is about cost. Polystyrene can easily be blended with just about any plastic or near plastic trash and is able to be formed into the trays and pots we all take home, empty and discard. What I am certain of is that in our suburban Chicago curbside recycling service provided by Waste Management, is very clear to point out they will NOT take back anything with a #6 recycled code which includes any form or type of polystyrene. (more…)

One of the best parts of doing what we do is the opportunity to meet some really neat people doing some terrific things for the world we all share. We were recently contacted by Mark Simmons, one of the co-founders of www.Useless.org a unique company selling very useful products for a very good cause. They donate 10% of their profits to fund water and sanitation projects worldwide.

Did someone say “eco-consistency”?

Regular readers know that eco-consistency is my mantra, but when I spoke to Mark that was exactly what he was trying to accomplish. He was committed to buying packaging materials that communicated and confirmed his company’s very deep and sincere values of protecting the earth and “using less”. It sounded like a perfect application for Globe Guard 100% recycled PCW content corrugated boxes and it was.

Eco friendly corrugated boxes – to print or not to print

Even though we heavily promote our stock box unprinted program, we also understand the need for customization and branding. Today, well over half of our Globe Guard box business is custom grade, custom print or custom size. Realizing the importance of branding, especially at this early stage of his company’s development, Mark decided he wanted their logo printed on the box, in white – a most unusual color for box printing. I was not sure how white ink would turn out on a brown box, but the end result is a marvelous shade of green (packaging). (more…)

In fact our green idea is fairly small and is only 15.75” X 14.25” X 9” high at its greatest dimensions. Some might even call it compact, so it can more easily be utilized in a small home or business office environment.

What we offer is a rather unique recycling tote constructed out of Globe Guard 100% recycled content corrugated. It is neutral, natural brown Kraft colored in color so it does not clash with any décor. We realize competitive products are often bright colored plastic but ours is not designed to double as a highway traffic control device. Furthermore, if you are one of the many people who advocate the limited use of plastic, isn’t it a bit inconsistent to utilize a plastic recycling bin for your paper waste?

If you are a regular reader you know we like to have fun with our topics and we are most definitely enjoying this one. In fact I am going to state that when designing our recycling tote, we strictly adhered to the following three R’s: (more…)

I recently had another “Madonna Experience”, with a potential customer who hesitated to make what he thought was the quantum leap from his current corrugated boxes, ALL the way to our Globe Guard 100% PCW recycled content corrugated boxes.

Those conversations always make me think of the pop singer’s infamous hit, “Like a Virgin” because the customer was convinced his current supplier was delivering boxes made of pure, new tree fiber. Not likely. Not even possible.

The Truth about Corrugated Board (more…)

Image via Wikipedia

The world of packaging is changing very rapidly and what was not green a year ago may be very sustainable today. A recent customer project has motivated me to do some research in an effort to update my knowledge base in this rarely used but usually fairly effective and efficient form of packaging.

What is cohesive packaging?

Unlike an adhesive product that is designed to stick to everything, cohesive material will only stick to itself. Most often a product is “sandwiched” between two layers of the cohesive material forming a fairly secure seal around the perimeter of the product but not sticking to the product. Most often this method of packaging is used to ship books, CDs, DVDs and other relatively flat products through the mail stream. (more…)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Some fear that a rotten economy will spoil the green packaging movement. The thinking goes, if people must choose between saving the world and saving their business, they’ll save their business. That’s true. However, the underlying assumption there is that green packaging is more expensive and therefore bad for business. That assumption is incorrect. Green packaging is (or should be) less expensive, and therefore more valuable than ever in times of economic hardship.

It’s important to distinguish between a packaging product’s purchase cost and cost in use. Some green packaging carries a higher purchase cost than the non-green alternative, and some green packaging doesn’t. Recycled packaging papers are less expensive than virgin equivalents. Recycled plastic materials can go either way, but are generally lower priced.

What’s more significant is the cost in use of green packaging. A green packaging strategy (and it’s important to think about packaging as a whole, not look at packaging components individually) should reduce overall cost – (more…)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I really wish that was not the case but it is. I have written and spoken on this topic numerous times but a recent reader response on this blog from Neil Hunter in the UK has motivated me to address it once again.

I think we all hope that eventually there will be consistent and clear definitions, and terms like eco-friendly, sustainable, compostable, biodegradable will all mean the same thing to everyone. But that is not the case today or probably any time soon.


When in doubt, claim everything?

There are certain packaging product areas where green has an even greater amount of “gray” and that most definitely includes bio-plastics. Consider the variety of products and applications out there and you will see the obvious problem. To me “plastics” means packaging films for wrapping, shrinking and forming. To our reader Neil, plastics are about disposable cutlery. Can “standards” ever be the same for both of us? (more…)

In the first part of this series, I described five general types of void fill –

1. Loose fill materials
2. Industrial papers
3. Flexible foams and bubble material
4. Expandable foam
5. Inflatable air pillows

Now let’s look at the qualities you may need from your void fill material, and see how the various options stack up.

Surface protection. For glass, metal, and scratch-sensitive plastics, polypropylene (PP) foams are the least abrasive option, followed by polyethylene (PE) foams and bubble. Industrial papers, depending on the grade, may also work.

Dust free. Loose fill, whether polystyrene or one of the various biodegradable varieties, are prone to flaking. Industrial papers sometimes contain dust as a result of the trimming process. For shipping things such as pharmaceutical or personal health care products, look in other directions for void fill. (more…)

Ever wonder what happens to your aluminum cans, food containers, corrugated boxes, and other recyclables after they are picked up at the curb?

We did, and not long ago got a tour of Waste Management’s recylcing facility on Chicago’s South Side. This facility happens to be one of the largest in the country. Here’s an inside look.

Recycled materials are delivered in a transfer trailer –



Unsorted materials are dumped into a big pile, which looks surprisingly neat –



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