This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.
Debco now offers a number of lunchtime totes made from at least 25% recycled content. These bags demonstrate the growing trend to make practical, green items available to marketers.
And with the slowing economy I would remind Ecopreneurists that there is likely a much wider audience for these bags as more and more folks are bringing lunch to the office both for economic (it is cheaper than eating out) and health (bringing in healthy foods and avoiding fast foods) reasons.
Simple non woven insulated lunch coolers like the Debco Bag #NW4517 are EQP $3.04 with a one color imprint. The Debco Bag #NW6915 (a square shape designed) are EQP $3.42. Available in black, red, lime green and royal blue, the bag we seem to be having the most success with is the Debco Bag #NW4694 non woven 100 gram polypropylene insulated cooler pictured to the right. All these bags are made from 25% recycled material, and Debco lists them as biodegradable on the Debco website.
Ecopreneurists within the healthy and local foods arenas might want to consider these bags as a great avenue for brand building. One idea is to sell the branded bags for $5/$10 and then maybe offer customers a 10% discount on their bill each time they reuse their lunch bag instead of using the cafe’s paper bags for takeaway. Ideas like this provide exposure for your cafe and help build customer loyalty.
Local Food Banks and Co-ops might also use these bags for fund-raising, thank you gifts or for resale at festivals and other events designed to support their efforts.
Debco is certainly not the only manufacturer out there making recycled material lunch totes. Gemline and Norwood also have some nice products as do many others vendors. And of course there are totes made of other green materials like our favorite, organic cotton. However for price, style and color range I think Debco’s offerings are worth a look.
If you have any questions about these bags please visit the manufacturers websites or email us at info@proformagreen.com.
Adventures in Green Marketing 
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