Imagine wearing a dress that is made from wood or recycled plastic bottles. Plants, wood, seaweed and recycled materials, incredibly, are all used to make sustainable fibres, which are used to make many different items. Sustainable fibres are those that are derived from renewable or recyclable materials. To be deemed 'sustainable' they must have the least amount of impact on the environment, right through from growing and harvesting the raw materials, through to the production process and finally to how
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The Truth About Plastic Bags–The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
When it comes to versatility, durability and variety, plastic is one of the most valuable materials out there. According to the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI), "the benefits of plastics are unmatched by any other material. It is light, easily shaped, strong, and inexpensive. Its ability to guard against contamination makes it useful in sterile medical environments such as hospitals." The problem, of course, is that when we started making our shopping bags out of the stuff the world
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Halloween Preparation Tips
The spoooooky season is upon us once more and it's time to start preparing for my personal favourite holiday, Halloween. Time to fill up the shopping bags with lollies or get ready to be tricked, with the possibility of everyone from Elvis to Lady Gaga knocking at your door on the 31st! While it's only started to take hold in Australia in recent years, more and more people are getting swept up in the fun of the holiday and it
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How to Run a Successful Conference
Whether you're a professional conference producer or this is your first foray into hosting one, there are always a plethora of things to organise and shopping bags full of worries that something (one of many things, actually) could go wrong. Like any major function, the key to running a successful conference is planning, planning and more planning. The less things you leave to chance the better, and the more opportunities you have to steer the event into a glowing success
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3 Green Business Ideas–Make Money and Save the Earth!
So, you grow your own veggies, compost your scraps and take your own cotton shopping bags to the grocery store with you. But lately, you've been itching to get more involved in saving our planet and are stuck for ways on how to make time for your sustainable crusading AND your job. Why not think about combining the two, and better yet, making money out of something that you love and that is good for the environment? There are so
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7 Great Holiday Corporate Gift Ideas
Corporate holiday gifts are based on a selection process, and they’re a chance to show appreciation to people who deserve it. They’re also a good chance to provide a great supply of enjoyable gifts and spread the message that your company is something special. You can also use promotional bags to give your business some exposure, and tailor them to meet your needs. Targeting your gift list Corporate gifts are a form of positive reinforcement. The gift giving is an
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5 Reasons Why You Should Use Promotional Enviro Bags
Using promotional bags are great for your business and also for the environment. We've got the top five reasons why you should use promotional enviro bags. Do your part in helping the environment In an age where we are becoming increasingly aware of the impact our actions have on the environment is it important to do our part for the environment. Plastic bags may cause the death of wildlife and marine life which mistake them for food. Because plastic bags
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Is Silk Screen Printing Best for Your Promotional Bags?
When deciding on the printing method to use for your promotional bags there are a few things to consider, like the details of what you want printed, the type of bag and what it will be used for. We've listed what you need to think about when deciding if silk screening is the best option for your promo bags. Choose what you want printed on the bag Firstly you need to decide on what you want printed on the bag.
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Plastic Bags versus Promotional Bags – Choose the Best For Your Brand
When deciding on what type of bags to use for your brand there are a a few things to consider. We've listed the top four things you need to know when deciding between plastic and promotional bags. The environmental impacts of the plastic bag The environmental impacts of the plastic bag are many. In Australia we use more than 6 billion plastic bags per year. Only a small portion of these are able to be recycled. Plastic bags take anywhere
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Around the World – Plastic Bag Bans and Regulations
Many countries around the world have banned the use of plastic shopping bags. Here, we've listed some of the reasons for the bans, the advantages of the bans and countries around the world that are taking part. Reasons for banning plastic bags Plastic bags are a major hazard to our environment in so many ways. Here's a list of the major reasons for plastic bag bans: They do not compose at a fast rate- most plastic bags take 20-1000 years
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The Ins and Outs of South Australia’s Plastic Bag Ban
South Australia has led the way by banning plastic bags in favour of green bags which are better for the environment. Here, the reasons for the ban are outlined and how the ban has been implemented has been described. Reasons for the ban The obvious reason for the ban of plastic bags is the damage they have caused to the environment. Plastic bags are detrimental to wildlife and the eco-system and in the water are often mistaken for jellyfish by
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How is Organic Cotton Different?
Organic cotton is the perfect material to use for promotional bags. Not only is it compostable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly, but it is also durable, re-usable and looks great. Here are top three reasons why using organic cotton for your promotional bags is a great option. Organic cotton- better for our planet One of the first obvious reasons for using organic cotton is that simply put, it is better for our planet. Not only is cotton a natural and compostable
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5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Plastic Shopping Bags
The number of humans on this planet, and the ways we manipulate our environment to suit ourselves, are having an unprecedented impact on the natural world. One of the environmental sins that has been prominent for quite some time is plastic bags. People have been arguing over their benefits to business and impact on the environment for decades now. In fact, it has been so long that many people are simply 'bored' of the debate! In reality, ditching the plastic
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6 Ways to Market Your Business With Promotional Bags
Using promotional bags as a branding and marketing tool for your business is an excellent strategy, and a cornerstone of advertising for many retail businesses. But it isn’t only retail stores that can use these long-lasting, high-quality advertising methods in their business. "But I don’t give my customers things in bags", we often hear. However, even businesses that are purely service-based have plenty of opportunity to use promotional bags as part of the marketing mix! We look at six strategies
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Beyond the Logo – 5 More Design Ideas for Promotional Bags
Promotional bags are a wonderful branding tool. They have almost as much value as word-of-mouth advertising - seeing your bag and logo on someone else's shoulders is an unspoken endorsement of your products and service. Yet, there is always a dilemma ... people don’t really like wearing advertising around! The trick to creating a promotional bag that people want to wear is making the branding subtle and the design inspirational. Create something within the design that people identify with or
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Beyond the Logo – 5 Design Ideas for Promotional Bags
If you've been investigating using promotional bags as part of your small business or retail marketing strategy, you have probably heard a lot about the importance of creating a re-useable, quality product. Promotional bags get their marketing longevity not only from the materials they are made from (jute, cotton or polyethylene as opposed to crinkly plastic), but also from their design. If you can find a way to market your business, while satisfying your customer's need to have and use
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Colour Choice Guide for Promotional Bags
If you can see the benefits of using promotional bags in your business - great brand recognition and respect, building a quality image, etc - but haven't thought about the details of your order yet, one of the first things to consider is your colour scheme. Some colour fabrics (and colour schemes for your graphics) will greatly enhance your marketing. Some choices may shorten the life cycle or negate the effectiveness of your promotional bags. We guide you through choice
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Jute Bag or Cotton Bags – Buyer’s Guide
In a boxing match between jute bags and cotton bags, the pre-match stats don’t give much indication of a clear winner! They both have awesome green credentials - jute's are more on the social responsibility side, while organic cotton is better for the planet. There are some incidental positives for jute which will matter for some applications, but not others. Overall, they're pretty even! Here we explore the benefits of jute bags and the benefits of organic cotton bags. The
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Ten Businesses That Can Market With Promotional Bags
Marketing your business takes quite a lot of effort! It also requires a unified approach, especially if your business is still in the early stages of branding. Getting your logo out there is certainly a piece of the puzzle - it's a form of indirect word of mouth, and better than all the solicited testimonials in the world. You can get your logo out there in a variety of ways - sponsoring sports teams and events (works for Telstra and
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Is Heat Transfer Printing Best for Your Promotional Bags?
Green bags for groceries, and promotional bags for specialty shopping, are becoming more and more common. And the planet is thanking us all for it - don’t doubt that! But it means that the bags that do something different will really be the ones that stand out from the crowd, and serve the best marketing and branding purposes. Heat transfer printing is one of the technologies that green bag and promotional bag manufacturers use to get colourful, realistic, stand-out results
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Recycling Plastic Bags – Easy Tips To Get Proactive
Recycling plastic bags is probably one of the easiest ways we can help our environment stay clean. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle is the contemporary catch phrase used to encourage more people to think about the environment and how they use everyday items. Perhaps the other word belonging to this group is re-educate, as the message may be a little slow to impact on people. Most people would quote the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle if you asked them how we can
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Albury Enviro Bags Donates Reusable Bags to Sydney Childrens Hospital
Recently Albury Enviro Bags was asked to sponsor the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation, the charity attached to Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick, by supplying promotional bags for an upcoming event. While it is obviously impossible to donate our products for all charities, though we always offer registered charities very special prices, we take our community responsibilities very seriously and we like to do our bit to share the burden of those who are experiencing difficulties or are less fortunate. In
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United Arab Emirates to Ban Plastic Bags
Following a sweeping international trend the UAE has announced that plastic bags will be banned by 2012 as has been reported by Gulf News on 4th July. Beginning this year there will be a 3 or 4 stage process leading up to the complete banning of plastic bags by 2012. During this period there will be an extensive campaign to educate the public regarding the dangers of plastic bags and the advantages of alternatives such as jute bags, paper bags
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Increasing Demand For Jute Bags As Prices Rise
The current wave of environmentalism is causing an increased demand for natural jute bags as more people realise the eco advantages of the golden fibre. According to Kawser Khan, Bangladesh exported 600,000 jute bags in 2008, a 600% increase in 2 years. Jute experts point out that the increased demand is due to the International Year of Natural Fibres plus global concern about plastic bag pollution. The UK based retail chain Tesco is said to require 1 million natural fibre
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Quality of Jute Bags, Cotton Bags, and Polypropylene Bags
Concerns have been raised recently about the quality of commonly available reusable bags, especially non woven polypropylene green bags. While some suppliers use recycled polypropylene of variable quality for their non woven bags, at Albury Enviro Bags we use quality new material unless a client specifically requests recycled material. We have found that almost without exception clients prefer new material. Though some may suggest this is counterproductive from an environmental point of view this may not be necessarily so as
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