In recent months, it seems that the trend of “going green” – living in an environmentally friendly way – has caught on with mainstream America. Clorox has started advertising green cleaning supplies. Paper towels and toilet paper made of recycled paper are cropping up on store shelves. Car companies are advertising hybrid vehicles, and celebrities boast about their extravagant eco-friendly lifestyles.

As a practical retailer, joining the green trend may seem too expensive or too difficult. You care about the environment, but you don’t have the time to install solar panels, grow grass on your roof, or conserve water with fancy plumbing. However, “going green” can be as simple as changing the store bags you use.

Enhance your image

Consider how many store bags go through your doors every day. Dozens? Hundreds? By changing to eco-friendly custom print bags, you can help the environment, and also brand yourself as an environmentally conscious retailer. Like businesses, consumers are starting to recognize the ecological benefits of green lifestyles. They’ll be more apt to do business with a company that shares their philosophy.

Saying your company has “gone green” is one thing. Showing your commitment to the environment with every custom print bag that leaves your store is quite another.

Eco-friendly options for custom print bags

Paper bags usually come to mind first when people think of eco-friendly bags. Paper certainly has built a good reputation for itself over the years. Paper bags are both biodegradable and recyclable, making them a very good choice for the green retailer.

Some suppliers offer paper bags incorporating 30 percent to 50 percent recycled content on a regular basis at no additional cost. If you decide to go 100 percent recycled paper in your custom print bags, talk to your bag supplier about options. And yes, that 100 percent recycled content bag will cost a little bit more.

Plastic bags, on the other hand, have built a negative reputation because, until recently, they have been non-biodegradable. If custom print plastic bags are a necessity for your business, discuss with your bag supplier the many options that are available.

Some of these options include using 100 percent recycled plastic for your store bags, or purchasing plastic bags with an additive that makes them biodegradable. You could even institute a recycling program right in your store. All of these options keep your business eco-friendly without limiting you to paper bags or the more expensive reusable bags.

Challenges with eco-friendly bags

The biggest challenge retailers will face with eco-friendly custom print bags is the cost. Unfortunately, eco-friendly bags tend to cost a little more than regular custom print bags.

Factors influencing the cost of your custom print bag are the size of your products going into the store bags, the percentage of ink printed on the bags, and the number of colors printed on the bag. Store owners can lower their cost for store bags by ordering in larger quantities, taking advantage of price breaks. For paper users, instead of going with 100 percent recycled paper bags, use less expensive recycled paper bags with 30 percent to 50 percent recycled material.

Overall, the costs for going green are small. Consider it an investment in future generations, and an immediate investment in customer goodwill toward your company.

Help the environment one bag at a time

By becoming a green business, you open yourselves to some great opportunities. For one, you will be doing your part to help the environment and maintain the planet for your children and grandchildren. You will attract more environmentally conscious consumers, which can give you an edge over your competition.

Choose eco-friendly custom print bags today and create a new name and image for your business.

A recent study done of environmental factors completed at MIT brought to light some extremely interesting information. Here are just a few of the facts that the study stated:

• Starbucks uses 2.3 billion paper coffee cups each year, resulting in 890,000 tons of waste.
• There were between 4 and 6 million trees used to print the entire Harry Potter series.
• More than 380 billion plastic grocery bags are used in the US each year.

What has this got to do with your business and your upcoming trade show? The answer can be summed up in one word: green. From Al Gore’s Nobel Prize-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to NBC’s “Green is Universal” campaign, it seems as though the entire world is taking notice of the importance of saving our planet and “going green.” The demand for eco-friendly items is growing each day and businesses are looking for ways that they can join in the “green” movement. Make a statement at your next trade show by giving out eco-friendly promotional products and you will be saying that you want to be a part of the solution.

Choosing the perfect trade show product can be time consuming. Limiting your choices to environmentally friendly promotional products can help significantly. You will be narrowing your search to include only promotional products companies that offer eco-friendly promotional products.

The best way to get someone to use a promotional product is to give them one that is both visually appealing and functional. There are several great options when it comes to eco-friendly promotional products. Long gone are the days where recycled paper and plastic were the only options. Due to the recent consumer trend towards “going green,” there is an extremely high demand for well-designed eco-friendly products. Below are just a few examples of eco-friendly promotional products that you can distribute at your next tradeshow.

Promotional USB Flash Drives
A key benefit of “going green” is saving trees. The less paper people use on a day-to-day basis, the better. USB flash drives are eco-friendly devices because they allow people to transport important data without having to print the information on paper. Spreadsheets and presentations can be transported and accessed from various computers without ever touching a page. Recruit potential customers at trade shows by offering USB flash drives. If your budget is tight, hold a raffle for one USB stick imprinted with your logo. The demand for these extremely popular promotional items will draw everyone to your booth. Plus, you will collect tons of leads when their business cards are dropped into the raffle buckets.

Promotional Drinkware
To help reduce the use of paper coffee cups and disposable plastic water bottles, trade show exhibitors can provide attendees with promotional drinkware. Imprinted drinkware makes a great eco friendly giveaway. There are several different varieties of mugs, tumblers, and sport bottles available. Since these are all reusable items, they promote a “green” way of thinking. A travel tumbler for the car is an item that several people find helpful. To help cut down on waste, provide attendees with promotional sport bottles and polycarbonate bottles for their water.

Promotional Bags
Rather than wasting another 380 billion plastic grocery bags, provide tradeshow attendees with organic cotton grocery bags. Several promotional products companies are now recognizing the need for attractive promotional bags that are also eco-friendly. The options include everything from organic tote bags to organic messenger bags. There’s even an organic bag recycler to store plastic grocery bags rather than throwing them away. By giving out an eco-friendly trade show bag, you will not only be providing attendees with something useful for the show, but for years to come.