Green Options

The new mugs look more like traditional travel mugs however they are still made in the USA using US produced corn. This is a good selling point as the economy slows and - right or wrong - the demand for Made in America promotion products increase.

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

There has been a growing conversation in the promotional items market about items made from corn plastic.

For us this conversation normally comes up when clients debate the pros and cons of corn plastic mugs like those offered by the manufacturer QuickPoint.

The argument normally goes like this.

Pro: Corn plastic mugs are safe and sturdy. They cost less than mugs of similar weight made from petroleum plastic. The QuickPoint products and others are union-made in the U.S.A from U.S. corn, therefore they are not shipped from overseas, which reduces their footprint, and are made by workers making U.S. wages. They are biodegradable.

Con: Using corn for plastic is believed to reduce the amount of corn in the global food chain. Contributing to a variety of social ills including food shortages and when combined with the increasing use of corn for ethanol, driving up the price of all sorts of goods. of

In keeping with this week’s theme of what to do with those pesky plastic eggs, I set out to find a worthy project. My enthusiasm was curbed when I came across reports of lead being found in these things.

At the risk of being the antagonist, telling you what not to do with them seems reasonable, albeit not crafty. At least I get to make a bullet list…