EcoFriendly Promotional Products - Red Flags For Green Buying

If you were asked if you would like to go green with your promotional products, you would probably respond “yes.” Then, what if you were told you would have to do at least an hour of research online to find the right product? Or maybe you’ll have to read the labeling very carefully? Still want to go green?

This is why we don’t have more people jumping onto the eco-friendly bandwagon. It’s just too difficult! There is precious little information or information is difficult to decipher and understand. And with 300 to 400 trust marks such as Energy Star and USDA Organic, it really is overwhelming.

So here are some easy red flags to watch for when selecting green promotional products:

Organic – You must make the distinction between organic as it relates to food or personal care (lip balms for example) and organic as it relates to fabric products. Organic food gift items such as coffee will carry the USDA Organic certification. Personal care might carry USDA Organic or that of other certifying groups. On the fabric side, there is no specific government-controlled certification. However, there are multiple auditing and certifying organizations for organic cotton. Check the product to see who certified it since to be called organic, it must be noted who confirmed its organic status.

Recycled - What a confusing mess this sometimes is! Your product should indicate how much of the product’s materials are recycled content. You will see many items on the market that say “made with recycled content.” How much is that? 10 percent? 50 percent? 100 percent? Is it pre-consumer (scrap from manufacturing) or post-consumer (reclaimed materials from end user waste). Post-consumer is preferred.

Recyclable – How is the item recyclable? Make sure it has the chasing arrows triangle (called a Mobius loop) with a number in it marked somewhere on the item.

Reusable – Unless designed to be disposed of immediately after use, most promotional products are reusable, many times in fact. Otherwise, why would any business invest in them? The point of the products is to make them so useful that people will reuse them over and over again… and see the company’s name over and over again, too. If this is the only green claim the item has, you might want to reconsider a more eco-friendly alternative.

Biodegradable – This is one of the most hotly debated topics in the green arena. Standards do exist for biodegradable products that will likely enter a composting waste facility. Corn-based materials are a prime example. But will that item go that way or straight to a standard landfill? And if it enters a landfill will it even degrade due to the landfill conditions? One could argue that even if it will degrade more slowly than indicated on its material specs, it’s probably better to choose a biodegradable item over a petroleum-based one because it could safely degrade in a shorter period of time if spec conditions are encountered. Keep watching this issue as more standards evolve.

If your item’s product description does not provide information on the above, ask your distributor for clarification. Sometimes the information is available, but just not included in a regular catalog description.

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