Tag Archives: bag

Pre-Printed Jute Shopper From V Natural

27 Jan

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of Proforma Simonetta Freelance, 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.

There are a number of pre-printed poly non-woven and recycled material totes on the market. A pre-printed bag allows the buyer to get more bang for their back as they are purchasing a pre-designed and decorated item to which they simply add their own logo or other information.

For those looking beyond poly or recycled content bags, Vitronic Promotional Group, home of the V Natural line, has introduced a pre-printed jute tote available with either leaf or ladybug motif.

This natural fiber shopping tote has a sizable 8″ gusset with 22″ handles. The overall size of the bags is a good 16″W x 8″D x 12″H. At this size it holds the equivalent of two standard plastic grocery bags.

The leaf or ladybug motifs would work well for any Ecopreneurist focused on gardening, growing, or natural produce demographics.

The bags themselves run EQP $5.13 per unit with one color additional imprint, so they certainly run higher than poly non-woven totes, however the added benefits of Jute’s natural insulating properties, low thermal conductivity, and antistatic characteristics are benefits that poly non-wovens do not offer. Not to mention the fact the non-woven bags are not a natural material.

If you are an ASI member Rory Campbell is the contact to talk to at Vitronic Promotional Group about these bags and the rest of the V Natural line.

If you are interested in these items to promote your own business, contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.


Tags: , , , , ,

Answers on Cotton: Gemline

29 Jan

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.

As you know we really like the organic cotton totes from Gemline.

Well we often get questions about the source of this cotton and other organic cotton used in our industry so we decided to ask Gemline for some answers. Clif Jordan the Regional Manager (South West) for Gemline was nice enough to send some answers.

According to Clif the organic cotton for Gemline bags comes mostly from Pakistan and sometimes India. All cotton used by Gemline is fair trade product and is Certified Organic Cotton, which means a licensed third party international agency (in this case the Control Union headquartered in the Netherlands) certifies the cotton’s origin and its authenticity. Gemline also offers eco-friendly inks and provides more information on their inks on their website.

Although most bag construction is done overseas the imprinting is done in the United States, unless the order is large enough for a full overseas production, say 10,000+ units. Most orders are under 100 units.

If you want to contact Clif directly with questions on Gemline’s items his email is cjordan@gemline.com. The Gemline website also has details on many of their products, www.gemline.com. You can of course also contact me at info@proformagreen.com.

So the bottom line for Ecopreneurists is, if you have questions about your vendor’s sources ask them. If vendors can’t answer your questions, I suggest you move along to someone that can.

We have asked the same questions about organic cotton supplies to Norwood, Leeds and Debco Bag. We will post their responses – when we get them – as well.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Recycled Messenger Bag New from Gemline

13 Jan

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.

Gemline, one of our favorite manufacturers for the style and quality of their green line of promotional items, is starting 2009 strong with the introduction of a number of new, green products.

In 2009 Gemline will start carrying nonwoven totes (#5 plastic) as well as totes from 51% Recycled PET fabric, (Leads also sells 51% Recycled PET products which they carry in their very successful Owl line). Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Insulated Shopper from Hit Promotional Products

6 Jan

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.

For 2009 Hit Promotional Products has come out with a Nonwoven Insulated shopper tote bag that their website claims is recyclable, reusable and hand washable.

The unit is made out of 90 gram non-woven, coated water-resistant polypropylene. They feature reinforced 23″ handles, a 9″ gusset, front pocket and zippered closure.

Since the tote is designed to keep food hot or cold it is a good promotional item for eco-friendly grocery stores, farmer markets, even travel agencies. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Holiday Stuff #3 – PET – Recycled Water Bottles for Christmas

28 Nov

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s posts are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

A number of clients and readers have asked us about ideas for eco-friendly customer gifts and I wanted to write a couple of posts talking about items that have done well in the past for clients or that are new for this year and doing well so far.

I also wanted to break these articles into categories so this blog will cover PET (yes items made from recycled water bottles for the holidays). PET may be a boring material but it is being used in some neat products.

1) Eco 100% Recycled Owl Laptop Sleeve – Made from 100% post-consumer recycled material (product label affirms this claim), holding a standard 15″ laptop and with a very clean line design, these bags have been very popular as both employee and customer gifts. At about $15 including a one color imprint of your logo or message, these bags are very popular with hip eco companies and road warriors. The gift is also practical, for one thing it makes accessing your laptop at the airport a heck of a lot easier, and of course it does provide basic protection from bumps, nicks and Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Nonwoven Messenger Bags. Are they Green?

2 Oct

Jetline is entering the nonwoven market strong this season. As I mentioned in another blog Jetline currently has what I think are the lowest cost quality nonwoven shopping totes on the market today.

Now Jetline has just introduced two new nonwoven messenger style bags. This is a great idea because shopping totes are fine but they are a little boring. These new messenger bags are great for Ecopreneurists that target colleges, schools and generally a younger, hipper crowd.

But are they green? As most folks now poly nonwoven bags are made from plastic – polyprop is an oil derivative. However many people say, “so what, they are cheap, reusable and long lasting, they keep tradional plastic bags out of the landfills and trees on the mountains”.

Proforma Green sells messenger bags that are organic cotton and PET. A number of vendors can supply such bags. But because these messengers are nonwovens and from Jetline they are very cheap. For example we sell the Value Nonwoven Messenger Bag at $0.99 with one color imprint for a minimum run of 200 bags.

But again, are they green?

It seems to me that nonwoven polypropylene will continue to be used in more and more products as the material continues to gain popularity with consumers. The arrival of poly messenger tote seems to be just the beginning of many items created with this material.

It is up to the green consumer to accept them or not. For those of us in the business of promotional items and retail I suggest we go back to our core questions.

Who is our customer? What is their budget? Will this product work for them? Is it green to them?

That is really who matters most.

Please contact us at Proforma Green to learn more about these items or go directly to the Jetline website.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Forget The Green Packaging At Your Peril – A Story

13 Sep

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.

chip clipWe recently ran 1000 bag clips for the MercyCorps office in New York (if you have never heard of this NGO check them out at mercycorps.com).

The New York office wanted some inexpensive and green items to use as giveaways and they went with the Garyline 6″ Bag Clip molded with up to 100% recycled material and an enhanced biodegradability additive so it beaks down once the clip is introduced to a landfill. Another reason to use Garyline was that their factory is in the Bronx so that lowered the project’s shipping costs and carbon footprint.

So client gets inexpensive, useful, green giveaway and everyone is happy. Right?

Sort of. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Organic Spa Tote II from Gemline

9 Aug

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.

Another example of the speed at which the green promotional products industry is changing is the second generation of the Organic Spa tote from the manufacturer Gemline.

Like many of the wonderful bags from this manufacturer, this tote is made from 100% certified organic cotton fabric and azo-free dyes.

However look at the front of the tote. This material originally was made of bamboo, it is now made from woven jute.

Why? We suspect a few reasons. Jute may be less expensive and it also makes for a more supple bag that is a bit lighter, easier to carry and easier to place embroidery or silk screening on.

The main point I want to make is that the time between Organic Spa Tote I and Organic Spa Tote II was less than 6 months. This normally would not happen with promotional items, but I have seen it in eco-friendly items again and again.

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , ,

%d bloggers like this: