You can see all our Spring Collections online or request our Spring 2012 Catalog.

Pretty Petals

Ideal for gift shops and boutiques, our 100% Recycled Pretty Petals paper shopping bags will look great right through Mother’s Day. Printed on white kraft paper with a beautiful pink and green floral design, this collection has coordinating 90% recycled gift wrap and 100% recycled tissue paper, all made in the USA.

Brushed Floral

These 100% Recycled Brushed Floral paper shopping bags feature a vibrant watercolor floral design. They are such a great look for upscale clothing stores and gift shops. They are printed on white kraft paper and have coordinating 90% recycled gift wrap, also made in the USA.

Rainbow Waves

Our 50% Recycled Rainbow Waves shopping bags have waves of beautiful, bright colors that are perfect for spring or summer. They are printed on white kraft paper and have coordinating 90% recycled gift wrap, also made in the USA.

Geo Garden

The bold geometric floral design of our 100% Recycled Geo Garden paper shopping bags is printed on recycled kraft paper. This collection has coordinating 100% recycled gift wrap, also made in the USA.

Leopard Safari

Trendy shops will love the new 100% Recycled Leopard Safari paper shopping bags. These bags are printed on recycled kraft paper with black paper twist handles. This collection has coordinating 100% recycled kraft gift wrap, merchandise bags and tissue paper, all made in the USA.

Zebra

Finally, our fun Zebra paper shopping bags are made from 50% recycled white kraft paper with black paper twist handles. We’re sure they will be a big hit with your customers. This collection has coordinating jewelry boxes, 90% recycled kraft gift wrap and 100% recycled tissue paper, all made in the USA. (See more of our Animal Print packaging.)

Get your Spring 2012 Catalog

If you haven’t received your new catalog in the mail, you can order a Nashville Wraps Spring 2012 catalog here. We would be happy to mail you one. Copies will also be distributed at the January trade shows.

Nashville Wraps will be exhibiting at the Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and New York Gift Shows along with the San Francisco Fancy Food Show this year. You can see all of our new holiday packaging collections at these shows. For venue and booth locations, check out the Nashville Wraps Trade Show Schedule.

NOW -- FOUR TYPES OF ECO FRIENDLY MAILERS

Salazar Packaging and Globe Guard® Products are pleased to announce the addition of a new line of unpadded poly mailer envelopes to the Globe Guard® line. This provides customers with a complete selection of mailer envelope options including the following.

Poly unpadded mailer envelopes

Our new product is constructed of a minimum of 50% and a maximum of 88% recycled content and is fully recyclable as #4 LDPE plastic waste. It features a “peel and seal” adhesive strip, just like our other mailer envelope products. It is now a stock item on our green packaging store and is available in eight popular sizes. This product is ideal for customers who want moisture protection and the lightest possible mailer weight to help minimize shipping costs.

Poly padded (cushioned) mailer envelopes

This is also available in eight stock sizes and features a bubble-lined interior to provide lightweight cushioning for fragile products. These mailers are constructed of varying recycled content, so no minimum RC is offered, however they are also fully recyclable as #4 (LDPE) plastic waste. They, too, provide moisture resistance and the lightest possible (cushioned) shipping weight.

Paper unpadded mailers

These are one of our most popular products and are available in ten Kraft and fifteen white mailer sizes in flat or gussetted construction. They are also able to be custom printed in one-case minimum. These mailers are made of a minimum of 50% recycled content and are ideal for green shippers who want to avoid the use of plastic to ship their green products to green-minded consumers.

Paper Padded (Cushioned) Mailers

This product line is made of 100% recycled content inside and out. The protective cushioning fill is made of 100% (PCW) shredded newsprint. This is a stock item in eight popular sizes and is one of the most popular eco friendly products we offer.

PHARMACEUTICAL BOTTLES IN 7.5X10.5 POLY MAILER

Why Use Mailer Envelopes, and Why Are Mailers Green Compared to Using Corrugated  Boxes?

The answers to those two questions are really one and the same whether your focus is saving money or saving the environment.

Applications and results may vary, but mailer envelopes generally are green because they typically use fewer packaging materials and less of them. For example, in most cases when you use a shipping box, you also use tape to seal it and void fill material to fill the excess space.

Our mailer envelopes all feature a peel and seal strip eliminating the need for tape. And since they are flexible, they tend to conform to the size and shape of the contents, eliminating the need for void fill. Also, consider the labor costs required by shipping boxes (packing, taping, etc.) compared to easy-to-use mailers. You can also factor in shipping and storage costs both inbound (to you) and out bound (to your customer).

Please contact us for a free, no cost/no obligation application review so we can help you determine the best shipping solution for you and your products. We also invite you to browse our store and our Inside Sustainable Packaging blog where you will find a variety of posts offering money saving advice, discounts and solutions to help you make your packaging greener. For example, on our ISP blog you will currently find a post that includes a discount code for 20% off on these new poly mailers.

Related posts:

NEW and on Sale: Globe Guard® Poly Mailers

Save Time and Money with Eco Friendly Mailers

Custom-Branded Shipper Envelopes in Five Easy Steps

There’s another good reason that businesses should take their green promises seriously: a company that imbues their brand with a smart and appealing approach to sustainability can attract a more loyal and potentially well-heeled clientele that is willing to pay more for products and services that align with their own beliefs and practices. This is certainly the case in the restaurant business, where the owner’s and chef’s personal approaches to sustainable living—such as locally sourced and organic produce, fish, meat and other ingredients—can be highlighted as essential elements of the restaurant’s brand image. It’s also true that people will spend more if they feel good about where they’re spending their money and the behaviors they’re supporting with their wallet.

A great example of this is Il Buco restaurant in New York City. Situated in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, Il Buco has developed a loyal following with locals and visitors alike for its rustic and authentic Italian dishes. For 15 years, it has occupied a former Italian antique store, and last year embarked on an ambitious expansion in the form of a marketplace and deli just around the corner from the restaurant. Called il Buco Alimentari & Vineria, the new marketplace offers a variety of house-made products, including pastas, pastries and cured meats—all crafted using traditional methods and with a focus on sustainable practices.

In keeping with their business and personal philosophies, the co-owner, Donna Lennard, and her team began a search for packaging and foodservice supplies that would showcase and complement the low-impact environmental policies embodied in their kitchen. We were delighted to respond to their request for items such as compostable hot cups, utensils, recycled paper bags and other foodservice items, which also had to fit with their branding and printing requirements. Ms. Lennard, and her design agency, Mucca Design, reviewed a wide selection of foodservice supplies, assessing them on functional, aesthetic and sustainability criteria.

We promptly reviewed Il Buco’s requirements and provided samples of the best solutions to their packaging requirements. This process continued as Ms. Lennard evaluated the options we provided and narrowed down her selection to the items she ultimately ordered for Il Buco.

I’m delighted to report that Il Buco is now a customer because, in the words of Ms. Lennard, “We wanted a specific look for everything from coffee cups to bags, and Excellent Packaging was consistently able to deliver more checks in the ‘yes’ column.”

Excellent Packaging & Supply provides Il Buco with branded, unbleached, natural kraft paper hot cups lined with Ingeo®, a bioplastic coating made from vegetable starch; clear, branded cold cups made from Ingeo; and branded shopping bags made from 100%-recycled paper, 95% of which is post-consumer and comes from a factory whose paper is FSC-certified. The overall effect projects a strong commitment to environmental stewardship. The natural color of the cups and bags is a result of the minimal processing of the paper used to make them, reflecting the short distance from nature to finished product, just like the food at Il Buco.

We also think the finished products look really classy, and feel certain that Il Buco’s employees and customers alike feel good about pairing thoughtfully sourced and prepared food with thoughtfully sourced and developed packaging.

We get a lot of inquiries and phone calls at Salazar Packaging about our Globe Guard® products, especially our 100% PCW and 100% recycled content shipping boxes, and we are most grateful. As we begin this brand new year, we thought it would be a good time to recap some of the questions most frequently asked of us.

What if I don’t see the size I need on your store?

We now have more than 1,000 box sizes immediately available, but they are not all made of our Globe Guard® 100% recycled content material, so they do not appear on our store. Only the most popular sizes can be stocked and offered on our green packaging web store, so a quick call or contact will confirm we do indeed have it available for you. When in doubt, please ask.

Are Globe Guard® boxes available printed, and what is the minimum?

The quick answers are yes, and whatever you want it to be. Most of the boxes we sell are private-branded and custom-printed. We will walk you through the process, especially if it is your first time, but believe me, it is far easier and less expensive than you have probably been led to believe.

In terms of minimum, we have custom-printed as few as 50 boxes, but I would be the first to tell you the set-up cost for printing is most easily amortized on 200 to 500 boxes, depending on the box size. By the time you get up to a couple of 1,000 boxes, the additional cost of one-color print is almost insignificant.

Are 100% recycled content boxes as strong as my standard virgin board boxes?

First let me say that in spite of popular belief, “standard boxes” are not 100% virgin. In fact, depending on who is making them, they are probably already 30% to 40% recycled content. Our stock Globe Guard® boxes are 100% recycled content and 32 ECT board strength, so it has passed the same testing (32# edge crush test) as anyone else’s “32 ECT” box.

What if 32 ECT is not strong enough for my application?

Globe Guard® boxes are available in almost any board combination up to 48 ECT double-wall construction. Again, much like the sizes shown on our store, just because you don’t see heavy duty board boxes on our store, does not mean they are not available.

Do you have white boxes available?

Yes, we have them available if you really want them, but we usually don’t suggest them because:

1. They are not 100% recycled content. The outer (white) layer is always made of virgin board, so it is not consistent with our green product line.
2. White shipping boxes only look good when they ship out. Usually, by the time they arrive they are far more likely to look dirty and beat up.
3. Depending on grade and design, larger minimums may apply.

For almost five years, our company has tried to be the best resource for eco-friendly packaging solutions, innovations and products. If you need your packaging green, chances are we have it and can deliver it quickly, oftentimes at a price lower than what you are paying for standard (non-green) products. If you are interested in meeting your financial and sustainability objectives in 2012, please contact us.

Sustainability Leadership at Patagonia

First and foremost, as a sustainable packaging company our goal at Distant Village is to only produce packaging to minimize impact upon our planet’s resources and contribute toward the welfare of the global community. This socially responsible mission is our highest goal and is at the core of Distant Village’s DNA. We are proof that this approach leads to a profitable thriving business – because our clients are seeking the same values in building their sustainable brands.

Our world is in the midst of exciting change. And business is changing too. Recently, Patagonia launched the Common Threads Initiative. This initiative is an insight into where the future of business is headed – and it is quite exciting.

The initiative is reaching out to people to pledge to reduce excess consumption and give the planet’s vital systems a rest from pollution, resource depletion and greenhouse gases. Patagonia commits to build useful things that last, to repair what breaks and recycle what comes to the end of its useful life. They encourage everyone to buy only what is needed (and will last), repair what breaks, reuse (share) what is no longer needed and recycle everything else.

Patagonia is an excellent example of a socially conscious brand leading from a position of sincerity and authenticity. They have been awarded with a loyal following and earned the trust of millions from their M.O. of goodwill.

Patagonia’s Ad in NY Times

Sustainable Packaging Leadership

Probably it’s already clear the parallels between Patagonia’s message and responsible leadership in packaging. Packaging is heavily consumed and is an excellent opportunity for reducing consumption. The goal of improving and reducing packaging consumption is exactly the reason I launched Distant Village more than a decade ago. As a sustainable packaging company, our place in the world is ironic. Every day, I work towards a world with considerably less packaging and regularly advise our clients how they can reduce their packaging consumption to save themselves money and to minimize the negative impact of excessive packaging. From a company view, Distant Village’s ethos and company mission are fully focused on improving the world by improving packaging utility and value while reducing its consumption. From a business view, our expertise is in creating memorable brand experiences for brand owners of sustainable products. Packaging will always have its place, but that is the point – it must have its place.

Less Packaging, More Purpose

Packaging with Purpose

At Distant Village, we believe all packing should be purposeful on two levels. First, packaging must have a clear and meaningful purpose and function, and second, it must be produced in a sustainable production process following a triple bottom line (3BL) standard. All Distant Village packaging is produced following 3BL and fair trade principles. We use only natural plant fibers to produce our boxes, bags, labels, ribbons, wrapping paper and more. We advise and encourage our clients to carefully plan and determine their truly essential packaging needs, and our professional design team works with clients to make memorable, innovative packaging solutions that create exciting sustainable brand experiences while also reducing excessive packaging consumption and saving clients money.

Ask us how we can reduce your packaging consumption and raise your sustainability profile. Contact us at email hidden; JavaScript is required or call at 1-773-276-4554. We look forward to learning how we may help.

Distant Village designs custom handmade sustainable packaging and produces PURE Labels™, a world leading sustainable adhesive label. Our packaging helps brands  express an authentic sustainable message. Distant Village was founded in 2000 and is a proud member of Green America, Social Venture Network, and Fair Trade Federation.

This summer, Xela Pack produced samples for Pure Science and their Jack Black Authentic and Original product line. The products were then distributed in a kit that Xela Pack helped design, produce and secondary package for the customer. The kit was called the Race Day Set, and it was distributed to bike racers at races that were sponsored by Jack Black. Response to the promotion was great, and the company even sells the kits online. They were smart to create a giveaway for the special event that was also something they could sell to customers browsing their online store. Great marketing.

Another great promotion that we recently learned about was from the Caldrea Company and their Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day products. Mrs. Meyer’s teamed up with Ghirardelli Chocolates for an event being held in San Francisco. Balloons containing Mrs. Meyer’s products in Xela Pack samples were placed in a fountain that was made to look like a kitchen sink with soap bubbles in it. Event-goers were able to take a balloon “bubble” from the fountain, and for every balloon taken from the fountain Mrs. Meyer’s donated $2 to the San Francisco Clean City Coalition. More than $3000 was raised, and thousands of Mrs. Meyer’s samples were distributed as well. I spoke with Mrs. Meyer’s about this awesome promotion, and they said they are planning more events in the near future. Can’t wait to see what they do next! To learn more about the project, check out this video Mrs. Meyer’s posted on YouTube.

Some of the most successful projects we’ve heard of are those that offer a sample as a gift with purchase. Sometimes it is as simple as a Xela Pack sample attached to the neck of a full size retail bottle. This helps companies promote new products, or new variations of a product like a new scent or flavor, to customers who are already comfortable enough with the brand to make a purchase. Xela Pack offers several different types of neck tabs or bands that can be used for such a purpose, and we can help companies decide which is best for their particular project.

Other times, the gift with purchase is more complex. Recently, we’ve been working on some jobs for ACDelco. ACDelco is distributing their ACDelco Sample Cleaning Kits with some new GM cars. This kit includes four different ACDelco cleaning products packaged in Xela Pack samples. So, some new car buyers are getting the ACDelco Sample Cleaning Kit with their new GM car, which not only is a great way of getting the cleaning products to people who could use them (new car buyers!), but also the cross-promotion helps lend extra credibility to the cleaning products as well. Again, this is an excellent promotion.

There are scores of other great companies that distribute their Xela Pack samples in interesting ways. We’ve had our Xela Packs handed out at the Rose Bowl Parade and at awards shows in Hollywood. It’s always exciting to see where they will pop up next. But one thing is for sure — the level of “pop” is often a direct result of the way that samples are distributed. So let’s get creative and let’s sell some product!

I have several people in my family that are folks who have everything, and if they don’t already have it, I couldn’t afford it anyway. Ha! If you have some of those on your list, read on….

I really think this cute little container filled with homemade goodies makes a great packaging idea. I’d probably put in my home grown dried herbs and my famous rib rub (the recipe is a secret). Or what about art supplies for the arty folks or kids on your list? That’s what is pictured here. The cool thing about this gift packaging is it is reusable – it won’t be tossed in the trash.

There are many organizations that you could donate money to in a friend’s name, and it would be good to do a little snooping to find out their favorite charity. One year my friend gave her nieces and nephews a gift of an animal donated in their names to Heifer International. For as little as $20, you can give a needy family a flock of geese or chickens. You could put the card announcing your gift (these are provided by the organization) in a 100% recycled Kraft gable box and include a stuffed animal to represent your present. Maybe you would like to tie on a pretty bow using Red Natural Jute ribbon, like in the picture below. If you are the crafty sort, you can easily decorate the box, too.

Do you grow herbs or make the best fudge or candy in your family? Give it as a gift and place it in a reusable tin, some of which hold as much as 16 ounces. The paint pail pictured at the top of this post is very cute and filled with cookies, and you might attach the recipe to the handle if it is not a secret like mine. Last year, I gave my secret recipe for pickled cold slaw to my brother, who is quite a good cook himself. He will have to kill me to get that rib rub recipe though!

If you are a regular reader of our blog, you know how we feel about “made in the USA.” Search the grocery store for made in the USA cleaning products or other goodies, make a tower of gifts, and be sure to include a note stating that everything is USA made. Even a cool retro item from your local Goodwill Store might be just the perfect thing for that hard to please person on your list. We have USA made nested boxes made with 100% recycled box board that fit the bill for this tower of love. I would reuse these boxes too.

Start thinking about how you can Give Green this year. Who knows, you may start a new family tradition.

What’s On Sale?

Everything you see on our store, featuring our Globe Guard® 100% PCW RSC shipping boxes, our Globe Guard® 100% recycled content corrugated die cut mailers, our paper and plastic box sealing tapes, and of course, all of our stock cushioning materials including our biodegradable bubble packaging on rolls.

All of our mailer envelopes are also on sale, including our most popular, 100% recycled content unpadded paper mailers, which are ideal for shipping soft goods. They are available in white or natural Kraft, and you have a choice between flat or gusseted sizes.

The Deal Gets Even Better

Quantity/volume discounts still apply, and our new flat rate shipping charges also continue even during this sale. Remember, everything on the store ships for $5.00, $10.00 or $15.00 maximum.

Our goal is to help you save money while using the greenest packaging materials available. As always, contact Salazar Packaging if you have any questions or would like to receive samples of any of our products.

This sale ends on Saturday, December 31^st, 2011, and you have to use promo code GPG10 at check out for the 10% discount.

Here’s hoping you have a great holiday season!

Allen King of Excellent Packaging and Supply shows off a take-out food container, one of many fully compostable products in his BioMass Packaging line. (Photo by Derek Lartaud)

In the food-packaging business, polystyrene has become a four-letter word. That petroleum-based environmental havoc-wreaker — often referred to as Styrofoam — has been largely phased out by Bay Area restaurants and foodservice companies in response to a consumer base that has demanded a commitment to sustainability. Gone are the days when your Big Mac was served up in a bright yellow foam clamshell.

Despite all of this, polystyrene has managed to keep a foothold in an unlikely place — the supermarket. Just a few aisles down from the organic produce and reusable fabric tote bags are eggs nestled in polystyrene cartons, and shelves stacked with boneless chicken breasts, T-bone steaks and almost all the other cuts of meat living their lives shrink-wrapped, resting on polystyrene trays.

Why does polystyrene thrive? Simply put, it works really well. It’s light, sturdy and doesn’t wilt or soften despite housing perspiring meats for days. The food industry simply doesn’t have a cost-effective, eco-friendly answer to the plastic that Dow Chemical introduced to Americans in the early 1940s.

In 2007, Richmond business owner Allen King thought he had the answer. After nearly 25 years of working in conventional retail and industrial packaging, King saw the tremendous potential for green foodservice alternatives. He decided to strike out on his own in 2004, creating Excellent Packaging and Supply, partnering with numerous manufacturing companies to bring sustainable foodservice products to the marketplace. King has dubbed this dedicated line of fully compostable products BioMass Packaging.

A particular manufacturer that King worked with had successfully developed a foam made from polylactic acid, or PLA, that’s derived from renewable resources like corn starch and sugar cane. It looked just like those polystyrene meat trays, but was fully compostable.

“We thought it was great,” King said. “We brought it in, we showed it to all the different meat markets, and none of them bought it.”

The meat markets baulked for two important reasons. For one thing, the new trays were still too expensive. But just as importantly, the compostable trays looked too much like the polystyrene ones. The meat markets would be paying more for an eco-friendly product without customers even knowing. It just didn’t make any sense.

Earlier this year, King got another chance. A China-based manufacturer created a tray made almost entirely from the fibers of bulrush, a marsh-growing reed.

“We thought, ‘Oh, wow,’” he said. “This is like a meat tray that looks different. It’s a fiber tray as opposed to a foam tray. It feels different. People will know it’s bio-based.”

According to King, the new trays performed just like the polystyrene trays and were not overly expensive. He once again shopped around his new find and this time there was interest. Sunshine Grocery in St. Helena, in Napa, agreed to purchase them. Whether the bulrush trays will catch on with other grocers is an uncertainty that King has learned to live with.

“We don’t know how much business we’re going to get from it,” King said. “We never know. But we know it’s a solution that no one else really has or is marketing as a solution.”

Excellent Packaging and Supply sends its BioMass Packaging products to businesses all across the country, from the Marriott Hotel down the street to the cafeteria of a large oil refinery in Louisiana. King partners with between 50 and 80 manufacturers located across the country and across the globe, with many situated in China. These diverse relationships allow him to act faster than larger, more conventional food packaging companies, giving him an edge in marketing new, green products and catering to the needs of individual businesses.

In 2005, Cal Dining, the company responsible for purchasing food and food packaging for the UC Berkeley cafeterias, wanted to go green. Cal Dining wanted to start by offering compostable take-out trays for students to replace their Styrofoam trays. Their current supplier had one, but it was flimsy, and Cal Dining feared it wouldn’t hold up, and so contacted King at Excellent Packaging. King had a prototype made. Cal Dining liked it, but said it was too thin. King had another prototype made, beefing it up. This tray passed muster, and would become the first compostable product offered at UC Berkeley. King continued to introduce more and more products, and after almost four years, the entire UC Berkeley cafeteria system went from not having a single green item to being 100-percent sustainable.

At around the same time, a similar situation was brewing with technology behemoth Google. Without any connections to the company, King tracked down the email address of Google’s then head chef Charlie Ayers and emailed him, telling Ayers about his company’s line of green products.

“I was there the next day,” said King. “He invited me down to the cafeteria, I showed him our solutions, and within three months they were buying a few key products that started them on the way to being green.”

Today, Excellent Packaging no longer counts UC Berkeley or Google as clients. This has become somewhat of a pattern. King says it’s only natural that larger food service companies have reclaimed businesses that switched to smaller, more nimble companies like King’s. Since 2005, the marketplace for green foodservice products has widened immensely, allowing larger competitors to offer more green products at a price point that Excellent Packaging can’t match.

“We did our job,” said King. “We seeded the marketplace. We knew this day would come, and it came.”

King sees his company less as a direct competitor to the larger, established food service companies and more as an innovator pushing his industry towards a sustainable future. “Part of our role is advocacy in the marketplace,” he said.  This niche role as innovator has even taken King outside the realm of business.

King worked with the Richmond Mayor’s Office, helping to draft the city’s 2010 ordinance requiring that all disposable food ware, with few exceptions, be compostable. He provided compostable sample kits to restaurants to facilitate the switch, and even worked side-by-side with the recently closed Safeway on Macdonald Avenue to transition away from Styrofoam products.

The tough economic times of late have taken a bite out of Excellent Packaging’s bottom line, and have hurt the willingness of some businesses to pay more for green products. But, King says, despite the cost, there are still many businesses that have made a commitment to stay green.

“This trend, even though it had a blip of going down, is going to trend upward and it’s not going to stop,” King said. “The demand for bio-based food packaging, any kind of packaging, is going to grow exponentially, and it’s not going to stop. In maybe 10 years, 15 years, 80-90 percent of all packaging will have a portion of it that will be bio-based and sustainable.”

And as for the fate of polystyrene meat trays? King plans to partner with an East Coast facility currently being built to produce an approximation of the bulrush tray using plant fibers from American agricultural waste products.

Polystyrene egg cartons are on notice, too.

This article originally appeared in Richmond Confidential, an online news service produced by the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley for, and about, the people of Richmond, California. Link to original article.

All shipped together using Expandos.

Last year, I wrote a blog post about this unique, green void fill option and I referred to it as “perhaps the best, loose, void fill option, ever.” That was not a wild exaggeration. After months of evaluation, we are still convinced it handles some applications better than most other currently available products.

Why It Works so Well

Its unusual shape and configuration help it to support heavy, fragile items extremely well. Expandos’ serrated pyramidal design helps the loose pieces to lock together, providing solid but flexible support to protect the product being shipped.

How It Works

One bundle makes more than 25 cubic feet of Expandos.

Unlike materials such as foam packing peanuts that ship and arrive in your facility in their large, pre-inflated or expanded shape, Expandos are delivered in solid, compact bundles of sheets, making them comparatively inexpensive to ship and store. When the sheets are run through the Expander machine, the unique pyramidal shape is created on an “as needed” basis.

Why Expandos Are Green

They are made of FSC-certified industrial paper waste and are also recyclable. Since they are extremely strong and durable, they can also be reused countless times before disposal and recycling become necessary.

Expandos are also light weight compared to many blocking and bracing options, so outbound shipping weight and cost are minimal. As mentioned above, the most dramatic savings and benefits are in the inbound shipping and storage costs. It is ironic that so many void fill options leave a tremendous carbon footprint just getting to the place they are being used. Expandos can be considered green inbound and outbound.

Expandos are not for everyone, and anytime there is a machine involved there is a cost and a usage minimum. However, if you are experiencing damage of fragile and expensive items along with high void fill costs, Expandos may be perfect for you. Please contact Salazar Packaging for more information and a no cost or obligation application review.