Sustainable is Good | Where design, lifestyle and packaging meet

Sears to Reduce PVC Packaging; Under Fire for Catalog Practices

Sears Holdings Corp. announced last week it would follow the lead of Wal- Mart and Target Stores in beginning to reduce the use of PVC in the packaging of items sold in its Sears and Kmart stores.   Sears is the fourth largest retailer in the US with over $50 billion in annual revenues and roughly 3800 stores in the US and Canada.

The company said it has adopted a policy aimed at identifying more sustainable choices because of the potential health risks tied to the manufacture, use and disposal of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).  Sears did not mention a specific timetable for the phase out.  The company has also set long term goals for the use of biobased plastics and those with higher recycled content that can easily be reused, recycled or composted.

As part of the policy, Sears said it will begin marking private-label merchandise as PVC-free when appropriate and will encourage vendors to reduce or eliminate their use of PVC in merchandise and packaging.

Widu FSC Certified Brushes

Widu is a line of exquisite Italian brushes and combs made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood.  The line is a perfect example of a high quality long lasting product whose manufacturers obtained FSC certification and are using it as part of their overall marketing strategy.

Originally developed by a hair stylist in Milan, the brushes feature wooden bristles designed to stimulate the scalp and reduce hair breakage.   

The brushes are handmade in Italy by adult native artisans and are of impeccable old world quality and long lasting value unlike many imitators on the market.

The brushes are available in a variety of base woods and the bristles are made from the hard white wood of the hornbeam tree - from the birch family.  Horn beam wood is known for its strong resistance to breakage and maintains its exceptional smooth qualities. 

Gillette Fusion Excessive Packaging

Proctor & Gamble's Gillette Fusion razor received a dubious distinction when it was awarded the Golden Dump Award.  The Golden Dump Award is given annually by Environment Victoria the leading non-profit environmental organization in Australia's Victoria state.  The award recognizes a commonly available supermarket product with the most environmentally damaging packaging. 

Gillette Fusion is packaged in plastic, cardboard and paper and received the award for "gratuitous use of packaging."  Judges said the razor’s packaging “clearly demonstrates the unsustainable trend for encasing goods in far more packaging than is required to protect, efficiently transport and market the product’’.

The annual Dump awards expose the seven worst types of environmentally damaging packaging being sold on supermarket shelves.  DUMP is an acronym for Dangerous and Useless Materials in Packaging.  In addition to the Dump award Gillette Fusion also took home the Excessive Use of Material award.

How to Use Less Plastic Box Sealing Tape, or None at All

Plastic (normally polypropylene) box sealing tape is one of the most popular materials for sealing corrugated boxes. It is relatively inexpensive, easy to apply, durable, and holds up under a wide range of environmental conditions. For those reasons, plastic tape usage has grown steadily over the past three decades, replacing alternate carton closure materials such as paper tape, staples, cold melt glues, and hot melt glues. Today, however, concern about the environmental impact of plastic materials is causing packers to reevaluate their options. Here are the most promising avenues packers can explore to reduce or eliminate their plastic tape consumption.

Reduce

Automate. When plastic box sealing tape is applied manually, it is almost always over-applied. Packers perceive tape to be flimsy, so they tend to apply several long strips when a single, shorter one will do. In reality, most grades of plastic tape have outstanding holding and cross directional strength. Running boxes through an automatic case sealer ensures that a consistent length of tape is applied to the box every time, and that no more tape than necessary is used. Case sealers are available in random and adjustable modes to accommodate multiple box size or single size package flows.

Downsize. Again considering the strength of a quality plastic tape, packers can often reduce the thickness and width of their tape without sacrificing package integrity. The standard plastic tape put up is 2.0 mil thick, 48 mm wide. I have seen scores of applications which were successfully downsized to as low as 1.6 mil thick, 36mm wide. A 20% reduction in thickness and a 25% reduction in width make a significant difference in the amount of tape mass being introduced into the box recycling stream. Considering that about 50% of corrugated boxes are recycled in the US market, downsizing has enormous impact.

Recycline Wins Forbes Boost Your Business Contest

Massachusetts-based Recycline makers of the popular Preserve brand of personal care and household products won the Forbes.com Boost Your Business competition.  The win earned Recycline the $100,000 prize from Forbes.com and Hewlett-Packard.

Recycline Founder and President Eric Hudson accepted the award during a reception at The Forbes Galleries in New York City last week.

“This was a fantastic experience, and we greatly enjoyed getting to know the four other finalists.  We’re grateful for the award and the support that our stakeholders and the Forbes.com community showed," said Hudson.

"We plan to use this award to forward our mission to satisfy people’s everyday needs with high-quality, stylish, and environmentally responsible products with our Preserve brand line of personal care products, tableware, and kitchenware.  Recycline’s win is a testament to the growing tide of interest in products and services that respect and preserve the earth’s precious resources," he said.

Recycline Inc. persevered over nearly 1,000 other small businesses to win the contest, which was judged by Forbes editors, readers and business experts. Recycline was among the nearly 1,000 entrepreneurs from across the country that entered the contest when it launched in March 2007. In the first phase of the contest, co-sponsored by HP, small business owners submitted 500-word business plans; 20 semi-finalists survived. In round two, Forbes.com users had the opportunity to review these plans and vote for their top five.

Who Are the Landfillers

BY DENNIS SALAZAR

We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Us

Considering the surge in public awareness and all the media attention on our fragile environment, you may find this fact astounding – it is estimated that only about 30% of the waste able to be recycled, actually is.

Why don’t more people recycle their recyclable waste? The answer is as simple: because they don’t have to.

When I’m in mixed company or in the presence of young children, I refer to these non-recyclers as “Landfillers”. The Landfillers choose not to recycle because there is no immediate, short-term benefit to them, and absolutely no penalty for not complying.

I suspect the 30% figure varies greatly from one town or state to another. I am certain the actual percentage in my area is far less because of the Landfillers. In Southern California and other areas, recycling with meticulous sorting is required, but in our suburban Chicago village, we have no recycling regulations whatsoever. As a result, I would estimate the number of households on our street that do not use their recycling bin is probably close to 50%. What do the Landfillers do with their village-issue recycling bins? My best guess is the bins are used as step stools or toy bins, or got tossed in the trash and now gather dust in … the landfill.

USPS Cradle to Cradle The Greening of America's Postal Supply Chain

An important story was overlooked when the US Postal Service (USPS) announced in June it had achieved Cradle to Cradle (C2C) certification at the Silver level for much of its Priority and Express mail packaging (including their Tyvek envelopes).  Most publications (Treehugger, Green Options, LA Times and others) reported the story without offering much beyond the basics of the certification and the USPS press release.  The real story centers around the tremendous complexities faced by all parties involved in achieving a credible environmental certification.

With increasing consumer interest in sustainable products and packaging, companies and suppliers are eager to do anything to offer products or services that cater to this segment of the market.  The demand for such products and services and lack of any universal standards or guidelines inevitably leads to unverifiable claims from manufacturers, and even greenwashing.  This fosters the need for standards and certification processes to allow people to independently assess a product or service.  Obtaining a certification such as C2C can also become a core component in a company’s green marketing strategy.  The success of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification program for paper and wood products is a perfect example of this marketing tool in action. 

Method Moving into UK Market

San Francisco-based Method makers of greener more eco-friendly cleaning and household products is expanding into the UK, its first international market.

The company has a fully staffed office in West London and plans to follow the "start-up model" it used so successfully here in the US to grow its business Method's co-founder Adam Lowry told BusinessGreen.

The company's products are already available at major stores in the UK like John Lewis, Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury's. 

"The UK consumer is so far ahead of their US counterpart when it comes to green issues that this was an obvious choice for our first international market.  We're seeing healthy growth, albeit from a low base, but the interest in green issues is definitely driving demand,"  Lowry said. 

One of Method's UK products is its "Go Naked" cleaner which is sold in a 100% recycled bottle.  Smart Planet reports from now on all bottles that are produced for Method will be made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, following the Cradle-to-Cradle design philosophy.

Method aims to make all products biodegradable and all bottles recycled and recyclable.  The company reportedly works with MBDC co-founder Michael Braungart and runs every product formula by him before beginning production.

Herman Miller Reduces Packaging

Herman Miller was recognized by the U.S.  EPA with the 2007 WasteWise Gold Achievement Award for its ongoing commitment to the reduction of transport packaging. 

The design firm works closely with MBDC and several of its products including the Mirra, Celle and Foray chairs carry the Cradle-to-Cradle certification.

The company has reduced its cardboard and plastic packaging by more than 50%, a result of shipping many of its products in bulk, securely enclosed in reusable blankets.

"Finding smarter ways to ensure our products reach the customer intact is just one aspect of our environmental commitment," says Paul Murray, director of Environmental Health and Safety at Herman Miller.  "We are committed to integrity in our deliveries and reducing our environmental footprint."

This is Herman Miller's seventh WasteWise award since the program's introduction in 1994.

ConAgra Wesson Oil Bag-in-Box Packaging

ConAgra Foodservice announced last week a new type of packaging for its Wesson Smart Choice Oil that is both environmentally friendly and offers some safety improvements over its existing 35-pound Jug-in-Box packaging for its oils.  The new packaging is aptly named Bag-in-Box.  It includes four built-in handles as well as a built-in spout, which is expected to make pouring easier and safer.

Bag-in-Box packaging offers two major environmental benefits using 66% less plastic than current traditional packaging and it takes up 36% less space in dumpsters when broken down.