Recycling is the key to a true green future for California retailers.
Plastic bags are easy to hate, but when they are recycled properly they become “green” gold: A real, long-term, sustainable solution whose time has come, and is in fact already working in Southern California.
Trash goes in – new plastic material comes out. That’s the way it’s done in Vernon, California at Command Packaging’s recycling center, a Nashville Wraps Green Way® supplier. Plastics are collected from a variety of industrial and consumer sources and brought into the recycling center as raw materials. These materials would otherwise be destined for the landfill.
Watch a quick video about how easy it is to recycle plastic bags into new plastic bags:
More about the recycling process
Old bags and plastics go in, and about 60 seconds later, new plastic pellets come out. This new plastic material is:
- Sustainable
- Economical
- Readily available
- Made using very little energy
- Created without pollution to water or air
- Non-toxic
- Clean and inert
- Chemically just like new
- Diverting plastics from landfills
- Driving costs down
We can go from trash to brand new bags in about 45 minutes or less.
To make new bags, the recycled plastic pellets are first siphoned up, then compressed into a liquid and extruded into new plastic film. It’s a lot like blowing bubble gum: air is forced into the liquid plastic, creating a tube which is stretched out and then cooled down as it goes up a tower.
Making color film is easy with the addition of non-toxic colorants. All dyes are certified to be free of toxins and heavy metals, which can’t be said for many of the imported reusable bags not made in America.
Many savvy retailers are going green with economical recycled plastic bags.
The entire process is quick, easy, does not pollute the air or water and uses only a small amount of energy, so the carbon footprint is low. Recycled bags are recyclable again and again; the cycle can repeat itself indefinitely. It’s as simple and green as it gets – which is why it’s time to take another look at American recycled plastics.
Encore™ Recycled Plastics and Green Way® Packaging with Purpose are trademarked names of Command Packaging, Inc. and Nashville Wraps, LLC. For more information, visit www.NashvilleWraps.com.
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Thanks for sharing.
We are a Fair Trade retail store and chose to use recycled packaging from the time we opened. Finding great looking, affordable plastic bags has been wonderful for us. We always tell our customers about the virtues of our bags, and they love the fact that they look so great. Keep bringing us great products like these, please!
yes,it is very good way to protect our environment,recycle.so almost people all begin to care our earth,the Marc Jacobs also bring the special handbag:”I m not a plastic.”
Very in formative video!I’m so glad I take the time to collect and recycle my plastic bags!
This is excellent background on how plastic bags can be recycled and easily repurposed into new bags, and you rightly state that plastic bags should be viewed as “green gold” not only because they produce less CO2 emissions than paper, but also because the material can be used again and again without degradation. We’re seeing these types of operations growing – here’s another example from a blog I recently posted:
http://2valuable2waste.com/blog/2010/02/recycling-step-by-step/
Thanks for the info!
Ryan Kenny
American Chemistry Council
http://www.2valuable2waste.com
http://www.twitter.com/recycle_plastic
As a supplier of 100% recycled paper jewelry boxes to Nashville Wraps you may think I would be biased against plastic products, but after seeing Command Packaging’s recycling operations, I was a true believer in the benefits of recycling plastics. What really convinced me was the fact in the number of times you can recycle paper versus plastic.
While paper can only be recycled 6 to 8 times before the fibers become too short to be useful, plastic can be recycled thousands of times. Maybe State and Federal governments should spend more time encouraging the recycling of plastic versus banning plastic bags in retail stores. Doesn’t it make sense to encourage the use and recycling of a material that can be used thousands of times versus only 8 times?
Trashy bags that are not trashy! These bags look and feel great, and best of all they hold up the same as their new counterparts. Plastic requires less energy to manufactor, ship and recycle than paper. So, if you have not made the change, what are you waiting for? Oh, by the way, its CHEAPER too!