Green Options

Is it fair or ethical for a cigarette company to promote eco-friendly improvements to its packaging?

Still have bottled water as a regular item on the grocery list? Or just pick up the occasional bottle when you’re out? It’s so convenient…

As you probably know, that convenience comes at an environmental and social price: documentaries such as FLOW and Thirst, organizations such as the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund, and even a few of us lowly bloggers, have reported on the costs created by water’s transformation from a freely-available resource to a multi-billion dollar commodity. That bottle of water you buy now contributes to the world’s third-largest industry.

Over the past week or so I have been sharing sources for Eco Packaging Handmade For You, because a popular tip for all crafters is to make your packaging creative. But we don’t all have time or our creativity is reserved for our fabulous products. There are however some sellers that truly excel at the packaging ephemera. To wrap up the series I wanted to share with you some of my favorite seller ephemera from purchases I have made on Etsy.

I hope you are enjoying the Eco Packaging Handmade For You series. In today’s post we will be taking a look at some great handmade bags and boxes perfect for product packaging or even gift wrapping. In all things I believe in the KISS motto - Keep It Simple Silly, and packaging is no exception. You do not need extravagant overdone packaging that will probably be thrown away by the recipient. Instead keep it simple, keep it easy to open, and keep it handmade.

One of the simplest ways to embellish your products is to add a beautiful hang tag. You can have professionally printed hang tags made with your logo, but they always seem so sterile and lifeless. Instead consider buying handmade creative hang tags for a unique addition to each product. They also make a great place to jot a quick thank you.

I have used brown paper bags in the past to rewrap boxes for shipping, but I never thought of making shipping envelopes from brown bags.  This genius packaging idea reuses plastic grocery bags for waterproofing and brown paper bags to make the outer envelope.  My favorite part is the stitching to close it up.  No glue or tape necessary!

Reduce paper waste and save trees with creative green holiday promotions. This article showcases the creative green holiday promotion of Von Glitschka, a small business owner, and offers tips for more sustainable holiday marketing.

[Image credit: Silus Grok at Flickr under a Creative Commons license]

Amazon.com has launched a new initiative aimed at combating Wrap Rage. In their effort to simplify packaging for the consumer, they’re also helping to reduce wasteful over-packaging. Details after the jump!

Foam peanuts are the Devil. Evil incarnate. Darkness made visible. Senseless brutal waste embodied in a horde of impish, malevolent, noxious, toxic minions spilling out of boxes, bags, closets, basements, attics, trashcans, landfills. A wicked wind is blowing, and those infernal foam peanuts are riding it across the land, across the sea, across the Earth. They cannot die; they may be eternal.

Okay, so maybe foam peanuts and the other demons in the legion of packaging materials are not the creations of some sinister mad hatter, some oily oligarch, some short-sighted sorcerer’s apprentice, some wizard hiding in a city that is decidedly not emerald green. Nevertheless, the foam peanuts are steadily spreading with every package sent by air, sea, or ground. And this fact begs the question: Can they be stopped???

Take heart, my fellow Earthlings, for we do have an easy and eco-friendly way to say “YES!” to this question: Bubbla.

Although it may not have the name of a saving knight in shining green armor, Bubbla offers just about anyone–from large businesses shipping countless packages per day to the lone house dweller sending birthday gifts to family–a way to put a stop to the rampaging horde of foam peanuts. (Besides, how silly does “foam peanuts” sound?!)

Bubbla is an “on-demand” air-inflated packaging system produced for over 12 years now by Bubbla, Inc., a company in Canoga Park, California. (Believe it or not, the owner of Bubbla actually invented air-pillow packaging material, and the company owns four patents in this area. Obviously they know their stuff!)

Whenever you need some packaging material, you just make it using either the tabletop or freestanding Bubbla machine, both of which are easy to operate (with touch-screen controls), small (about 25” tall by 15” deep), and can be plugged in to a good old electric wall outlet. The machine quickly cranks out a supply of air-inflated packaging in one design or another (e.g., diamond wrap or long cells) to meet your demand. Make as much as you need, when you need. No fuss, no muss.

This article was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on September 17.

I really love milk, so I was very happy to hear about this new great idea that is coming from the UK: a milk bottle that is made mainly of recycled paper and can be recycled again. In one word: Greenbottle.

Greenbottle (http://www.greenbottle.com) has developed a much greener solution which can replace plastic milk bottles. The [...]

On September 30th, six years after Congress originally passed the law, the United States will implement a country of origin labeling program for supermarket foods.