Eco-Friendly Promotional Product Trends
Fashionable ideas and trends in promotional products come from a myriad of factors. Sometimes, trends come from availability. For instance, peak harvesting season for pumpkins starts at around September and end around November. So, there would be a trend in pumpkin flavor things for food production.
Other times, it comes from the novelty or newness of a good or item, like the latest video game or movie release. But there are also trends that are born of necessity. Sometimes a situation is so pressing that consumers have to change their own habits.
Ever since the 1990’s we have learned that not all of Earth’s resources are easily renewable and that if we weren’t careful in managing them, that future generations might pay for our overindulgent behavior. This has given birth to an environmentally conscious trend in marketing, promotional products, and advertising known as Eco-friendly.
But what are some good eco-friendly promotional products? What inspired them, and what sort of need does it fulfill? That is what we are going to be talking about today.
Why Go Green?
The world is certainly a large place, but it has certainly grown smaller over the decades. Thanks to globalization, a movement in which people from different parts of the planet have increased communication, companies and people are creating world wide spheres of influence. Just over the last 20 years, we have just now started to realize how connected we are to one another in the grand scheme of things.
Treehugger.com brings up an interesting example. “For example, did you know that 25 percent of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from flora that comes from the Amazon rainforest? And that less that one percent of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists? These numbers suggest that we all have a large (and growing) personal stake in the health and vitality of places far and near. “
We are affected by plant life in the rainforests. Their existence, in spite of how far distant it is from us effects the health of our friends and family members. And we can come very close to losing it.
In fact, Every day, some 80,000 acres of tropical rainforests are cleared.
And this isn’t just about the rainforests. The reasons why people and companies go green that range from saving on utility bills to making a higher profit.
While this is met with some skepticism by politicians, businessmen, and, others who aren’t initially into making lifestyle overhauls to fit environmental regulations, the fact of the matter is, it has just gotten more popular to design and sell promotional products that help reduce waste in the long run.
Green Products
It is advantageous for a business to utilize not only green practices but also green promotional products. This is because it is a growing and somewhat new marketplace niche.
As theprch.com explains it, “Conscious consumers are loyal to the environmentally friendly brands they know and trust. It’s difficult to understand the true values of a company and once a conscious consumer does their research to find trustworthy brands they rarely stray.
Reusable Bags
There has been a slow but steady worldwide movement on the ban of plastic bags. Mainly because it has been, and still is in some areas, a problematic issue when it comes to the environment.
“The average bag you pick up at the grocery store or carry your takeout in, has a lifespan of about 12 minutes. When discarded, they clog sewage and storm drains, entangle and kill an estimated 100,000 marine mammals every year, and degenerate 
into toxic microplastics that fester in our oceans and landfills for up to 1,000 years.”
So, in an effort to decrease waste, reusable bags have become somewhat of a solution and a fashion trend.
If you are going to go this route, be mindful of the type of promotional product you use. It needs to be made of a material that has no lead content, isn’t plastic, and is machine washable. Usually, a type of cloth blend or canvas is sufficient. It won’t be cheaply made, but it is better than a backlash from a health officer.
Tumblers
The only type of pollution that takes up more space than plastic bags is water bottles. According to the Pacific Institute, ”
- Producing the bottles for American consumption required more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the energy for transportation.
- Bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.
- It took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water.“
So, it is for this reason that there is a growing movement in bringing and using reusable water bottles for work, workouts or just when you are out and about.
Stainless steel is usually the best material for a reusable water bottle. It is ideal mainly for keeping liquids at a desired warm or cool temperature. All you need to do is slap a logo on it with a beautiful color scheme and you will have a reusable promotional product that will last a long while.
Reusable Straws
Just when we thought there couldn’t be any more plastic waste to contend with, there is even more out there damaging oceans. By the year 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish if our habits don’t change! It’s surprising how efficient we are at creating waste. This time, it involves the small plastic tubes we suck on with our happy meals.
It turns out, America uses 500 million plastic disposable straws per day. On average it’s an average of 1.6 straws per person (in the US) per day. And these are just conservative numbers from the companies that produce them.
This is where the use of alternative materials can come to save the day. There are reusable straw kits out there, with carrying cases, brushes to wash the inside of them and are made of materials like glass or stainless steel.
You can put your company information on the carrying cases and promote the use of these straws instead of the ones that are building up in our oceans. This is a promotional product that is not as popular as the first two but can make a huge difference.