Green Promotional Products

Alright, I have written enough on bags to last a lifetime already. As such, I am going to move on in my quest to document every corner of the world of promotional products and write a small post about a new wave of products - the eco-friendly promotional product. Sorry to all those readers that were expecting a post about products that are literally green - I'm sure there is a "Green Things" club that you can join somewhere on the internet if its’ that important to you.

There is incredible pressure to be eco-friendly in every aspect of our lives - probably for good reason too. Personally I don't really believe the hype; we're all going to die anyway and we'll probably destroy the world no matter what kind of shopping bags we use, or how many trees we replant. This doesn't bother me personally, but it scares enough people that I think there is something to be said for putting these poor people at ease.

So, as promotional product distributors, users, buyers, seller, lovers, eaters and such, what can we do to ensure that our industry is as eco-friendly as possible? Well, here are some ideas to get you started.

Firstly, try these eco-friendly key ring bottle-openers; made from recycled steel that is ground into powder, pressed and shaped. Apparently the powered metal is heated to 1120 degrees Celsius in order to ensure that the finished product is one continuous piece of metal! Incredible! Must take a hell of a lot of fuel to heat those furnaces, but I guess that's what trees are for. Ha. Funny guy. Anyway, the company that produces these things claims that they are unbreakable, which is a challenge enough in itself to warrant buying them!
Correct, this one is indeed branded with a Coca Cola logo. Irony? I certainly hope so.

The same company also produce recycled flash drives! Crazy eh? The little things that people think will make a difference! They offer a fully customised design service and claim to be able to make flash drives in almost any shape that we can imagine! I know what you're thinking, but I bet you can't actually imagine a chiliagon...

Other ideas include ballpoint pens made from recycled paper and bags made from "sustainable wood pulp". I assume they mean "pulp made from sustainable wood sources" because, in my opinion, when something is made into a bag, it is no probably longer being sustained. But of course, I am deliberately being an arse - it's my job. There is also a wide variety of wooden stationary available, in case the rest of these ideas were scintillating enough! I have NO idea why people associate stuff made out of wood with eco-friendliness; sustainable forests or not, they're still destroying trees to make rulers - what the hell is eco-friendly about that?!

So there you have it; a few ideas to help you understand what you can do to help make your promotional products more eco-friendly! (Make them out of recycled stuff apparently - who would have guessed?) a