Green Options » paper

Earth Love’n Paper Products Perfect for the Holidays

Wenona Napolitano — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:39:37 +0000

If you don’t have time to make you own gift wrap or cards this year, or maybe if you just need a starting point check out Earth Love’n Paper Products. They make gift wrap and note cards from 100% recycled paper.

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Smart Marketing = Greener Printing for J. C. Penney

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:43:30 +0000

One of the terrific things about greening a print marketing program is that many of the best practices in marketing today have “green” as a by-product.

Take the example of J. C. Penney, which made marketing headlines today when it announced that it would be discontinuing its semi-annual Big Book catalog after the Fall-Winter 09 season. Over the years, J. C. Penney was finding that its catalog was less a direct selling channel than a way to prime the pump for online sales. Instead of wasting volumes of paper, ink, and coating — not to mention the fossil fuels to deliver the 800-1000-page books — it decided to slim things down.

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Throwing Out Food and Paper Will Be Illegal

Chris Milton — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:04:04 +0000

Quebec has taken a long hard look at itself, and decided it doesn’t like what it sees.

Its policies simply aren’t working. Overall waste generated has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, with waste going to landfill rising by over 10% in the same period.

One of its key targets was to get 60% of the province’s waste food into composting by 2012 has had to be abandoned: the current figure is only 12% and the target just cannot be met.

However, rather than just trying to fiddle with green taxes, the government has gone straight for the jugular and announced plans to make it illegal to dump rubbish and food waste.

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Harry Potter Sports an Environmental Audit

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:11:47 +0000

Did you notice something different on the back pages of The Order of the Phoenix? If you live in the Canadian market, you might. The fifth book in the Harry Potter series has something unusual on its back pages. It’s an environmental audit.

The audit, produced using New Leaf Paper’s Eco Audit Calculator, uses New Leaf EcoBook paper, which uses 100% postconsumer waste. This is something new in the book market, which is normally so sensitive to price.

While the paper does cost more than virgin, these costs are offset by the extreme environmental benefits of switching to paper made with 100% postconsumer fiber. Because virgin paper costs less than recycled papers, the book industry has traditionally gone almost exclusively with virgin stocks. But Scholastic decided to make an environmental statement — a big one.

According to the audit, on the 950,000 print run, this simple switch resulted in a savings of 29,600 trees, 12.4 million gallons of water, 20,300 BTUs of energy, 1.4 million pounds of solid waste, and 2.7 million pounds of greenhouse gases. That’s more than just a drop in the bucket.

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Cardboard Rolls Transformed into Halloween Favor Boxes

Wenona Napolitano — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:31:14 +0000

Empty cardboard toilet paper rolls are one thing that everyone seems to have.

My kids love to play with them to make binoculars and all sorts of fun playthings.

I have found several creative ways to transform toilet paper rolls. Favor boxes for special occasions and parties are one way to put them to good use.

Anyone can easily take empty rolls and turn them into fun party favors, especially for Halloween.

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The Paper Industry Fights Back

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:05:04 +0000

In today’s marketing world, the paper industry is seen as the big, bad guy — the energy hogging, landfill-clogging waste producer that needs to be replaced by cleaner, more efficient electronic media. But is this really the case? The paper industry claims that the opposite is true. It points out that electronic media are huge consumers of energy, and when you consider that the paper industry is one of the largest consumers of clean energy like wind power, the tables may actually be turned.

In a recent publication, “Pixels or Paper?”, International Paper wrote:

Our industry is one of the biggest users of renewable, low-carbon energy in the world. Sixty percent of the energy used to make paper in the U.S. comes from carbon-neutral renewable resources and is produce on site at mills. In addition, these facilities use combined heat and power (CHP) generation systems, which are 80-90% efficient. Fossil fuel use and purchased energy in this industry is steadily decreasing.
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Are Pixels Greener Than Paper?

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:27:05 +0000

It’s a debate that’s raged in the printing and marketing community for some time. If you switch to electronic methods of communication, are you really greener than if you use print? Or by switching some portion of your print marketing to email or other e-communications, are you really helping the planet?

International Paper has produced a new brochure in its “Down to Earth” environmental series, “Pixels Vs. Paper: Are Pixels Greener Than Paper?” that addresses this question. Of course, it is written by a paper company, so the answer will not be a surprise, but the brochure does contain some interesting tidbits that marketers may want to keep in mind:

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Scrap - Source for the Resourceful

Keith Rockmael — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:15:26 +0000

For some people the act of walking in to a shopping mall during a huge sale makes them sort of shake like they are on crack and for me and my friend Mouse, walking into Scrap for the first time, it caused a similar reaction. How could I not have known about this place? True, the location could not be less in the middle of nowhere and in San Francisco that is quite a trick. But still, I have no excuse.

Scrap, which their pamphlet calls “a creative reuse center and workshop space” came about in 1976, way before recycling and Green became trendy, as a resource for artists and teachers. Scrap also set out to promote environmental awareness and creative reuse.

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Making Old Books into New Treasures

Jamie Ervin — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 05:56:13 +0000

Tonight I’ve been pondering crafts involving old books. Obviously collector books, library quality books and books we just plain love get pampered and kept on our shelves and tables…

What about the rest? Obsolete manuals, damaged books, those which have only kind of survived the toddler years… where do they go, what do they become?

Disclaimer: If a book is not salvageable (or any parts of it that are beyond reuse), please tear it apart and recycle it.

If books are in good shape and no longer needed in your household, please consider donating them to a hospital or shelter. A great idea for children is to have a book exchange party or a books for the children’s hospital party (ask everyone to bring their gently used books to donate).

Here are some great ideas I found for making a book into something new.

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10 Great, Cheap, Green Office Supplies

Jennifer Kaplan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:37:17 +0000

In the past I’ve written about how you can save money by reducing the amount of paper you use and the 7 basics of green procurement (which includes defining office supplies standards). Now, let’s talk about basic office supplies that are great, green and cheap.

It’s easier to buy green office products than ever before. The three largest office supply retailers, Staples, Office Depot and Office Max each carry thousands of reasonably priced products with recycled content and other environmental attributes.

Some even innovate. Take Office Max, they were one of the first national retailers to carry TerraCycle products and they now sell a range of their products from notebooks made from used potato chip bags to juice pouch pencil cases.

There are also a number of green office suppliers online such as Green Line Paper.com, TheGreenOffice.com or Green Apple School Supply that offer thousands of eco-friendly products. And green promotional item companies like John Simonetta’s ProformaGreen.com and EcoPromotionsOnline.com are also good places to find green office supplies.

I found ten awesome green office supply products under $10 because no matter how small every single purchase has an impact on the environment. Whether you’re buying copy paper or forklifts, that purchasing decision is an environmental decision. So, if you want to start with some small stuff, basic office supplies are a great place to start. Here are my favorite cheap, green office supplies:

#1. on my list is reasonably priced private-label recycled content copy paper from office supply retailers. A scan of websites today (July 2, 2009) revealed the following prices for a 10 ream case (5,000 sheets) of 30% PCW 20 lb. 8.5″ x 11′ copy paper:

Office Depot: $3.30/ream (for a limited time until stock lasts; regularly $4.00/ream)

Office Max: $4.00/ream

Staples: $4.10/ream

2. & 3. The TerraCycle E-Waste Recycling Can is made from 100% e-waste (such as crushed computers and fax machines) that would otherwise have ended up in landfills. It comes in both blue and green, holds 28 quarts and costs $9.99 (www.officemax.com). For a more funky and slightly smaller version, the TerraCycle 12″ Urban Art Recycled Trash Bin (its that groovy one above) also costs $9.99 (ShopOnlyGreen.com).

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Promote Your Crafty Biz in Green: Business Cards

Becky Striepe — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:30:13 +0000

[Handmade business cards by Lizerati. Used with permission.]

We’ve had crafty business on the brain this week! On Sunday, Julie wrote about salvaged setups for outdoor shows, and yesterday, I posted about recovering after a long day of vending. So what about your promotional materials? It’s important to have some sort of take-away at your booth so folks who don’t have cash on hand can find you later. Here are a few eco-friendly resources for making or printing your business cards!

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Eco Packaging: Etsy Shopping Ephemera

Jackie Hernandez — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:42:08 +0000

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.

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Crafty Reuse: Your Guide to Junk Mail Crafts + Art

Becky Striepe — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:00:33 +0000

Rather than toss all those catalogs and offers into the recycle bin, you may as well take advantage of the free craft supplies!

Despite our best efforts to stop marketers from sending us junk mail, the stuff still seems to find its way into our mailbox. We use some of it for things like grocery lists and keeping score when playing Scrabble, but what to do with the rest? Here are some project ideas and junk mail art inspiration.

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Eco Packaging Handmade For You: Tags

Jackie Hernandez — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:14:42 +0000

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.

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Make Your Own Vintage Button Monograms

Julie Finn — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:25:48 +0000

In the way that crafting trends come and go and come again (and perhaps stay for a while), buttons have hit the big-time. And I’m on the button bandwagon just like everybody else–I bought over four pounds off vintage buttons off of ebay, I did some cool projects from Susan Beal’s Button it Up!, I made up a list of some other cool vintage button projects to do in the future. And yet…

I completely agree with etsy seller Letter Perfect Designs, who says that some buttons are mini works of art. I can hardly stand to do something useful with my buttons, or even to wear them as jewelry around my neck, because then I can’t just sit and stare at them!

Instead, one of my favorite things to do lately is to make these button monograms–I have an entire alphabet that I’ve made out of vintage buttons, brown paper bags, upholstery remnants, and archival mat board. And while I don’t think that the idea is so complicated that you need a whole step-by-step tutorial for making your own vintage button alphabet, I have learned some strategies that work really well for this particular craft project:

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Recycle Grocery Bags Into Eco Packaging

Jackie Hernandez — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:28:44 +0000

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!

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Tutorial: Inside Out Notecards - Part 2

Jackie Hernandez — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:42:14 +0000

I am still looking for ways to transform my stash of plain boring notecards. I showed you how to use fabric scraps and stamps to “recover” the card and how to make inside out notecards with craft punches in Part 1 of this series. Now I want to show you how to make inside out notecards using your own cut out design instead of craft punches.

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Reuse Sewing Pattern Tissue Paper

Jackie Hernandez — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:01:54 +0000

Sewing pattern tissue has a great graphic quality. If you have some vintage or used sewing patterns laying around, consider reusing them for art, home decor, jewelry, or anything else you can decoupage. Here are a bunch of inspiring ideas for reusing sewing pattern tissue paper.

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Earth Policy Institute: Protecting and Restoring Forests

Earth Policy Institute — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:44:08 +0000

By Lester R. Brown

Protecting the earth’s nearly 4 billion hectares of remaining forests and replanting those already lost are both essential for restoring the earth’s health, an important foundation for the new economy. Reducing rainfall runoff and the associated flooding and soil erosion, recycling rainfall inland, and restoring aquifer recharge depend on simultaneously reducing pressure on forests and on reforestation.

There is a vast unrealized potential in all countries to lessen the demands that are shrinking the earth’s forest cover. In industrial nations the greatest opportunity lies in reducing the quantity of wood used to make paper, and in developing countries it depends on reducing fuelwood use.

The rates of paper recycling in the top 10 paper-producing countries range widely, from China and Finland on the low end, recycling 33 and 38 percent of the paper they use, to South Korea and Germany on the high end, at 77 and 66 percent. The United States, the world’s largest paper consumer, is far behind South Korea, but it has raised the share of paper recycled from roughly one fourth in the early 1980s to 50 percent in 2005. If every country recycled as much of its paper as South Korea does, the amount of wood pulp used to produce paper worldwide would drop by one third.

The use of paper, perhaps more than any other single product, reflects the throwaway mentality that evolved during the last century. There is an enormous possibility for reducing paper use simply by replacing facial tissues, paper napkins, disposable diapers, and paper shopping bags with reusable cloth alternatives.

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Tutorial: Inside Out Notecards - Part 1

Jackie Hernandez — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:00:20 +0000

I am still looking for ways to transform my stash of plain boring notecards. I showed you how to use fabric scraps and stamps to “recover” the card. Now I want to share a fun way to turn an ugly blank-inside card into a lovely postcard or notecard. In a two part series I will show you how to make inside out notecards using a craft punch (like the oak leaf card) in Part 1 and how to make inside out notecards with your own cut out design (like the “Hi.” card) in Part 2.

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