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Sustainable Office Supplies - What To Look For?
June 18, 2010 Written By: Ken Hunting for sustainable office supplies is a confusing at best and deceptive at worst. There are a few guidelines that can help you sort through the noise and find what you need. Ideally, a sustainable product is economical, works well for longer than the alternatives, is sourced in a reasonable manner and is easily recycled. Recycled content means that some percentage of the material used to make a product has been diverted from going to the waste stream to make your product. This is good. Post consumer waste is waste that had been used for it's intended purpose and then made into something else. Even better. What is recyclable is another matter. The makers of vinyl claim that their product is recyclable. In theory this is true. The problem is that there is no infrastructure in the US to recycle vinyl so it all gets routed to landfill. About 4 billion pounds a year of it. Highest estimates on how much vinyl gets recycled are around 2% - and that is all industrial waste - probably directly off the line and back in a vat. You may need to check with your waste collection group to find out if they have facilities for compostable plastics, or bio-degradable plastics. If not, they are just trash. How easily recycled a product is also counts. Are you willing to take the time and energy to do what it takes? Does the manufacturer tell you how, or do you have to figure it out? Where it was made matters. Even if your product is made from recycled materials, shipping it half way around the world is not helping the sustainability factor. It takes a lot of energy to transport a product 3-5000 miles. Try to source locally when possible. We are putting together a guide for sustainable and recycled office and school supplies. It will at least help start your research and find possibilities.
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Simple product reviewRECYCLED & ECO-FRIENDLY BINDERS, FOLDERS & TABS3-RING BINDERS
Naked Binder makes the highest quality recycled and recyclable eco-friendly office and school supplies on the planet. Office supplies have never looked better, performed better or been as easy on the planet.
Pocket Folders
Our recycled eco-friendly pocket folders, cd holders, and binder pocket pouches are 100% recycled, FSC certified and 97% post-consumer waste.
Tab Dividers
All of the tabs can be easily customized by labeling or screen printing them. Our binder tabs are all made from post-consumer waste and are 100% recyclable.
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