04 Nov 2010 Sustainable Packaging One Stop Shop
Posted at 15:54h
in Inside Sustainable Packaging
Most of our customers are familiar with our web store, Globe Guard Products.com, where they can buy a variety of green packaging products to satisfy their packaging and shipping needs. What many don’t realize is how good we are on custom packaging, how many different packaging types we offer and/or our design capabilities.
A “Cool” Product and a Perfect Example
Air Lifts is a new product created by our good customer and friend, Kingdom LED, Inc. Their simple but incredibly effective invention makes it possible for electronic devices to be raised, permitting better air circulation under the item, keeping the electronics from overheating and thereby improving efficiency and extending the life of the components.
Why Globe Guard Paper Mailers?
For green minded customers who will not accept plastic products, Globe Guard 50% recycled content paper mailers have been a very effective way to mail or ship relatively flat products such as books, photos, etc. The gussetted, three-dimensional mailer envelopes are ideal for thicker, bulky soft goods like tee shirts and reusable bags.
Even though they are paper, they offer enough water resistance for most applications and are strong enough to hold up through USPS, FedEx or UPS shipping. 
We enjoy creating eco friendly printed, die cut containers, but they are not exempt from many of the same potential costs and problems of non-green die cut designs and solutions.
During a recent phone conversation with a potential new client, I could hear the disappointment in my contact’s voice when I informed him he would probably have to invest several thousands of dollars in printing plates and cutting dies even before his first box was cut or printed.
This situation was unique and extreme because we were talking about an oversized, 12” tall, stackable display tray that would be palletized for a large retailer. The two-color copy the customer wanted printed on each panel of course added some cost, but not as much as you might expect. As I have said many times, ink is cheap, but set up time and plates are not. This unfortunately also holds true for cutting dies for new package designs, whether the container being designed is a counter top display, tuck mailer, tray or special shipping box. 
The new box that eBay has created for their customers to reuse is an excellent concept and it could not come at a better time. People are more focused than ever before on all of the “three R’s” of sustainability,” but especially the one I often refer to as “the other R” or “the forgotten R,” which is “reuse.” Don’t be surprised however if it is not necessarily accepted and heralded in the packaging community as it already has been in green circles. Even though I agree it is a great idea whose time has come, it also is a perfect example of how difficult it is to create a truly green package.
What’s Wrong with the eBay Reusable Box?
Extra Tall and Extra Long Shipping Boxes Now Available[/caption]
What does one have to do the others, you might ask when a blog post title more resembles that of a yet another Harry Potter movie. The items are a small sampling of products that will fit into our new extra long stock shipping boxes. We have just added a 4” X 4” X 36” and a 4” X 4” X 48" to our assortment, allowing us to provide a sustainable packaging option to customers selling and shipping long, thin items.
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For a long time we’ve tried to keep the bundle sizes on our 
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Earlier this year, January 13th to be exact, I posted an article complaining about some