BPA – Bisphenol A is a chemical building block used primarily to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. An NBC Today Show news segment created quite a stir about the safety of that chemical. Just Google “BPA� and you’ll be presented with a ton of information – both for and against. I’ve read many articles and have spoken with my suppliers who make polycarbonate bottles and I still don’t consider myself an expert on the subject. But here’s what I can tell you:

In the promotional products world – BPA can be found in polycarbonate water bottles. This is the Nalgene style of plastic – rigid, shatter resistant and translucent. BPA is not typically found in flexible plastic (traditional bike bottles, opaque plastics). It is possible to make polycarbonate style bottles using non-BPA materials.

Unlike in the retail market where BPA baby bottles can be twice as expensive as non-BPA, the price for non-BPA water bottles is comparable to the BPA version. In the media, the recycle code #7 has been given a bad rap. Recycle code #7 simply means that it is not classified as another type of plastic (ie PETE, HDPE, etc). It may or may not contain BPA.

Keep in mind that BPA is not just in our water bottles. BPA is found in many places that touch our lives – including many water cooler bottles and the lining of tin cans. If having a BPA free water bottle is important to you, all you have to do is ask your Promotional Consultant. Remember, the FDA still says that BPA is safe, it’s not against the law to sell them and many bottles being sold today still contain BPA. If this is an important issue to you, make sure to ask before purchasing.

Julia Wright, MAS
Wright Choice Promotions

Recently I had a client ask me about green methods of imprinting on an organic t-shirt. This is a great question because we can quickly make our organic cotton garment not quite so eco-friendly if we apply harsh or toxic inks in the imprinting process.

Screen-printing is by far the most common method of imprinting t-shirts. In this process screens are “burned� using a chemical emulsion. Inks are then pushed through the screens to transfer the ink onto the garment. When you are done printing the garment the screens are washed down with a solution so that the screens can be reused. Ink that is left on the screen after the shirts are printed is collected but much is washed down the drain. Today’s inks are getting better. Most are low VOC which is safer for the workers.

Embroidery is another common imprint method, but it is not practical on large areas. A company logo on the front left chest of a shirt would be great, but it’s not cost effective to do a full back or full chest imprint with embroidery. Other than the electricity used to operate the embroidery machine, the only other environmental impact that I could see is the dyes that are used to color the threads. I couldn’t find much info about that subject.

Direct to Garment printing is quickly increasing in popularity. It’s basically like an ink jet printer that you have in your office, but it prints directly onto the shirt. The inks are low VOC and because you don’t have to burn screens it’s much more kind to the environment.

There are some really cool designs being created by laser engraving on fabrics. The laser just “burns� into the very top layer of the fabric. It doesn’t affect the strength of the fabric and has a really cool tone-on-tone look. The only environmental impact I can see is the use of electricity.

“Green� is still in the eye of the beholder. But I hope the information listed above provided some good food for thought. If you have any suggestions or info I welcome your comments.

Julia Wright, MAS
Owner, Wright Choice Promotions

Hi everyone!

We have just started this brand new blog to help keep our clients up to date on the latest and greatest in world of earth friendly promotional products. News, new product information and all kinds of good stuff will be posted here. Please feel free to leave feedback. We want to hear from you!