Tag Archives: totes

Video: V Natural™ Organic Caps and Bags

8 Feb

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.

Vitronic Promotional Group has likely got the nicest low cost organic cotton cap on the market. They rock because Vitronic prints them with an eco-friendly process as well, so they are super green. We wrote about these caps earlier in the article 100% Organic Caps with Eco-Friendly Screen Printing.

Well Vitronic was back at the 2009 Proforma regional meeting in Dallas talking about their caps – more colors for 2009 – their matching organic cotton totes and expanding of their V Natural line in general. Take a look.

For more information on these items please visit the Vitronic website or email info@proformagreen.com.

For more videos from the 2009 Proforma regional meeting – including a video on the Vitronic V Natural™ Jute Flat Tote see http://www.youtube.com/ProformaGreen.

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Nonwoven is a Number 5 Plastic – Who Knew?

4 Jan

 

Nonwoven Poly bags [Polypropylene] are some of the most popular bags on the market today because they are cheap and strong. You see them everywhere heavy stuff is getting carried around, the book store, farmers market, etc. They do their job great.

However I have written before that nonwoven bags are not recyclable.

Well in that respect it seems I was wrong. There are a number of nonwoven bags from manufactures like Jetline and Hit Promotional Products that are recyclable. These bags have a recycle rating of 5 and number 5 plastics can be recycled through some local curbside programs.

Polypropylene has a high melting point, and so is often recycled into containers that must accept hot liquid and in general it is gradually becoming more accepted by recyclers. The literature I located says “they often end up as signal lights, battery cables, brooms, brushes, auto battery cases, ice scrapers, landscape borders, bicycle racks, rakes, bins, pallets, trays”.

Nonwoven fabrics themselves are 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.

So yes Ecopreneurist it seems you can feel more comfortable about your Nonwoven bags. They are certainly the cheaper alternative to PET and organic and standard cotton shopper. Also keep in mind that the Advertising Specialty Institute ranks bags as the #2 longest retained promotion item, after clothing.

For more information and pricing on nonwoven bags please visit the Jetline website or see our page on nonwoven bags at www.proformagreen.com

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Holiday Stuff #2 – Organic Cotton

20 Nov

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.

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

Our first blog was on BAMBOO. Now let us move to ORGANIC COTTON.

1) Organic Cotton Towels – Unbelievably soft and absorbent with natural colors like Stone Green, White and Natural Tan, these towels make great gifts. Embroidered with your company or organization’s logo expect to pay around $24 per unit. Towels work because they will end up in the home of your customer and likely be used for a long, long time. Organic cotton towels and robes also make good employee gifts.

2) Organic Market Bag Set – These heavy duty organic cotton bags look and feel great, so they have a high perceived-value but an honest price at $16 for the set, including placement of your logo.  Employees and customers will use the bags for a long, long time and they use them in public so each time your customer uses the bag in public your company or organization is on display. We also like the large print area on these bags. This is a lot of space to display your message and/or contact information. This market set helps the environment by reducing the need for plastic or paper shopping bags with this beautiful organic cotton set. The set includes a storage tote and 2 full-size grocery totes. Continue reading →

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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.

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How To Grow A Brand – Plant a Tree! Leed's Teams AmericanForests.org

24 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.

Leed’s is teaming up with AmericanForests.org. “Leed’s makes a donation to American Forest’s Global ReLeaf program for every EcoSmart imprint order we produce”.

The thing I like about this new deal is that you don’t have to do anything extra. If the client purchases Leed’s EcoSmart promotional items the donation is automatically made.

Simple. But…. Continue reading →

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Greening Business

18 Jul

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.

The world often perceives marketing as a wasteful practice. However, it is still essential in every business.

The good news is that companies like ours, proformagreen.com are manufacturing with greener, more resourceful printing processes and materials now more than ever. Mugs, pens, tote bags, the list continues to grow of items that are both eco-friendly and/or promote eco-friendly lifestyles.

My name is John Simonetta and I want to let businesses know that they really can go green. From packaging to uniforms to promotional items to printing needs, there are cost effective marketing solutions that allow businesses to lower their impact on the planet without sacrificing the quality of their brand.

In my posts I will highlight some of the new promotional and print solutions that are now available to businesses and organizations looking to Go Green with marketing collateral.

Photo Credit: spoons at Flickr Under Creative Commons License

Read More About Marketing:

Eco Libris: Le Mailing Vert – the French Green Version of Direct Marketing

Natural Marketing Institute, Nielsen Value LOHAS Mart At $209 bn

Creating a Web Site for Your Green Business

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