Green and Sustainable
Companies want to play into the “going green” trend as evidenced by the following search volumes:
“how to be green” 83,000,000
“eco friendly” 673,000
“how to go green“ 550,000
“reuse” 673,000
“waste management” 1,500,000
“carbon footprint” 301,000
Living in sustainable buildings and doing business with green companies who make eco friendly products are logical components of green living.
Even though the Federal Trade Commission in October 2010 issued new rules for green marketing and labeling, dubious environmental claims are everywhere.
If sustainability is about the best practices for the long term maintenance of the planet and humans, what are the best choices and practices for plastics in green buildings and plastic packaging?
The WalMart packaging scorecard is an example of source reduction.
Evaluating the choices for sustainable packaging and green buildings involves weighting the factors of toxicity and life cycle analysis (LCA), not just end of life. The final arbiter of life cycle analysis is the EPA.
Eliminating plastic from one's life entirely is impractical. Source reduction, or using the least amount is the most incontrovertible, shortest route to going green. According to the EPA, “the most effective way to reduce waste is to not create it in the first place.” Many products are overpackaged because marketing believes the consumer will consider a product cheap if a minimal amount of packaging is used.
Reusing and recycling plastic has limitations. Plastic is simply compressed natural gas; every heat history oxidizes plastic. Subsequent uses of recycled plastic are in practicality downcycling.
For prolonged and direct food contact, it doesn't make common sense to package food in post consumer plastic. Today's milk jug can be tomorrow's pickup bed liner, for example.
A global patchwork quilt of regulations is slowly eliminating heavy metals and toxins from plastics. While some chemicals such as BPA have borne the brunt of hysteria, other chemicals such as phthalates are still commonly used in PVC. Wall coverings and billboards made from PVC dump large quantities of known toxins into the environment as PVC degrades. The green premium for PVC free is often more than the market is willing to pay for honestly green living.
All our products are heavy metal free and BPA free.
In addition to PVC substitutes, we offer conventional polyethylene, biodegradable plastics and information to make an informed decision.