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.
Debco – one of the larger manufacturer’s of promotional items in North America – recently posted a new all green catalog. The catalog is available on their website at www.debcosolutions.com under the downloads tab.
One of the things that Debco did in this catalog which I wish more manufacture’s would do is they produced a glossary of terms.
Thought it would be useful to reproduce that glossary here for our community.
Glossary of ECO Terms
Corporate Sustainability: implementation of strategies that meet business needs while concurrently seeking to protect, support, conserve and enhance the human and natural resources needed in the future.
Cotton [Natural]: unbleached cotton processed AZO-Free; using no hazardous chemicals.
Cotton [Organic]: organic cotton is the version of its conventional counterpart grown without pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, chemical fertilizers or any other chemicals that harm the environment.
Ecological footprint: a measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems and natural resources. It compares human consumption of natural resources with planet Earth’s ecological capacity to regenerate them.
Hemp: fiber from the stalk of the hemp plant which contains a low amount of lignin, the organic glue that binds plant cells, which allows for environmentally friendly bleaching without the use of chlorine. Hemp is an extremely durable, breathable and comfortable fabric similar to linen but softer and machine washable.
Jute: a plant fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads and is one of the most economical natural fibers second only to cotton in the amount produced and the variety of uses.
Non woven fabrics: sheet or web structures bonded together by entangling fiber mechanically. They are flat and porous sheets that are made directly from separate (often recycled) fibers. They are not made by weaving or knitting and do not require converting the fibers to yarn. Non woven products from Debco’s catalog are made from 25% recycled material AND are biodegradable.
PET [Polyethylene Terephthalate]: used as a raw material for making materials such as bottles and containers for packaging a wide range of food products and other consumer goods. PET is one of the most common consumer plastics used.
Post-consumer PET: plastic bottles made from PET are collected, sorted and processed in order to reuse the material. Common extrusion methods include production of melt-blown and spun bond fibers to form long rolls for future conversion in to a wide range of useful products such as totes bags, ID wallets, valises and backpacks.
RE 22-stitch material: made from 85% post-consumer recycled material. It is produced mainly from recycled bottles. Its use drastically reduces the amount of plastic in our landfills. Look for the RE prefix on items throughout this publication.
RE Unifi Repreve® : a man-made yarn made from 51% recycled material consisting of a mixture of pre-consumer (unused fabric generated during the production) and post-consumer (plastic bottles) recycled materials. FTC approved – First quality. The production process conserves energy which reduces the greenhouse gas (CO2 emissions) by 92%.
Recyclable: having properties that allow processing (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse.
Recycled: a new product made from products that were used before.
If you have any questions on products made from these materials please contact Debco or send us an email at green@simonetta.us.
John Simonetta
ProformaGreen.com
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