Physical BOOKMARKS not just any but ‘Greener things’ ideal for Authors or targeting anyone who reads books!

Recycled Bookmarks in various materials.

Why bookmarks?

• Large print area for all your messaging and branding
• Low price point
• Flat, light and easy to mail within a standard DL envelope
• Modern or classic styles
• Special shapes can be made
• Variety of textures
• Very inexpensive unit cost to give away
• Easy to ship and store to give away anywhere (you could charge!)
• Constant point of reference when in use by recipient

A physical bookmark will constantly make an impression to you the reader as you begin and end each page, each chapter and every book!

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Have you seen this symbol before?

It is a universal recycling indication located at the bottom of all plastic bottles.

If you are like us you may have wondered what happens to all these plastic bottles after use?

Well the question is do you recycle your PET?

Post-consumer waste PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) is the most common plastic used for beverages and food products.

We wanted to share about the recycling process with you:

1. First your PET (Plastic Bottles) are collected.

2.Separating them from other materials is next such as labels, metals, and other rigid plastic parts.

3. Sorting into different plastics & colours

4. Crushing

5. Washing, drying & separating further for the next advanced recycling process

6. Shredding into small pieces called PET ‘fragments’ is the next step, where at this point there are still residues of the original product attached.

7. Thereafter, these fragments are purified to remove physical and chemical impurities through melt filtration to result in pure PET ‘flakes (Source: Petcore, a non-profit European Association fostering the development of PET recycling).

8. PET ‘flakes’ are then sorted for r-PET (bookmark PET) and the rest for different industry specifications, such as carpet fibre, moulding compounds, and non-food containers.

9. Finally, the addition of r-PET with recycled paper allows the lamination of your colourful and new looking branded bookmarks!

10. Would you like to watch a video on PET recycling? Click here ! (Source: Recycle-more is a sister site managed by Valpak, where Valpak is the UK’s leading provider of dependable, reliable and responsible compliance and recycling solutions, managing the recycling obligations of over 3,500 UK businesses under producer responsibility laws).

We like our PET bookmarks the most because they can be printed full colour both sides, they are cut for a page hanger and they are priced from less than 20p each + VAT. Coca Cola used them in one of their recent promotions – makes sense huh!

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Did Max, the dog, bite your old leather shoes? Don’t worry, we’ve used them as bookmarks!

How is leather recycled? You may not know that it is also shredded into tiny pieces then ‘glued’ together using resin and catalysers, where natural rubber binding is mixed with the recycled leather material to producelarge sheets. These are then cut into the rectangular bookmark size available in black, blue, burgundy, green, natural, pink, purple, red and white from only for 0.201p*.

Leather bookmarks remind me, of something a relative would bring back for us from a holiday maybe in the Isle of Wight! One of the first pieces of merchandise I remember with the smell of the dye and the leather. They were then a traditional & quality product with the luxury aspect. Today we have adapted this classic through an eco process while still maintaining that high quality finish to a much more modern & still loved style.

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Contender 3

Classic cars are vintage, but old tyres, what happens to them?

According to RecyclingExpert.co.uk tyres are made from very tough forms of chemically enhanced rubber and it can create toxic pollutants if burnt and take a long time to break down when put in landfills!

So how are they recycled?

Recycling tyres is a tricky & intense process through different companies being innovative. Here are the stages to where tyres are ground up, and delivered in a bag of bits for bookmark making.

1. Cutting the raw tyres into small pieces called ‘chips’ is the first step of the tyre recycling process.

2. Loading and cooling the chips into an enclosed freeze chamber using liquid nitrogen is the next step.

3. Subsequently, allowing the chips to reach a temperature of minus –80 degrees centigrade will make the rubber very brittle.

4. Thereafter, smashing these frozen tyre chips with a hammering machine until the rubber falls into smaller pieces of various sizes known as ‘grade of tyre’ or ‘crumb’.

5. Extraction of these crumbs from the hammer chambers is the next step.

6. Then, sorting the crumbs within the plant into one of 6 grades. (Source: Recycling Expert, a company founded by John Rowlinson, the founder of PtS, where it was formed to offer unique point of reference on how to recycle and reuse your waste).

7. Blending the recycled ‘crumbs’ with natural rubber binding is the final step to produce sheets where your solid tyre bookmarks are cut from.

8. We take your logo and message and print them!

We like tyre bookmarks as they really look recycled, tactile feel of rubber and have traction on your fingers, they are great for a one or two colour print and definitely make their mark at a price starting at only 0.144p*.
Better, we recycle using UK tyres!

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For a quotation, simply drop us an enquiry here, or contact Karl at source@OriginalThing.com.

Note: *Price subject to quantity and colour.

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NEW Product: This highlighter is an eco first, it is now available in UK for branding with your company logo and message.

Now using latest generation compressors, the energy thirsty appliances have been replaced with new low energy use equipment and on demand motion activated auto controlled smart lighting.

The offices have been re-insulated, and geo-thermal heating (100 meter borehole!) has been installed which provides heating using natural heat below ground. Hybrid cars have replaced less efficient company vehicles.

All this adding up to overall reduced energy consumption on the 75,000ft2 site of around 25% !

And this is where (we think) it gets really exciting; energy for their UK-based operation is now being provided by a combination of renewable energy generated from the wind, water and sun; two wind turbines (which you can see in the photos), solar PV panels on the warehouse roof and (planned for 2011, now been authorised) a hydro water turbine on the river which flows past the site. I was impressed!

The cumulative impact of these initiatives is that the UK site will be Carbon Neutral by Autumn 2011 and the company is now developing this philosophy throughout the complete supply chain beginning in mainland China.

And what about the China factory?

China is changing very fast and we believe that we have the right partners to adapt to this change. Most of the products in their portfolio are either produced in our UK factory or in our joint venture operation in Fujian province in China. Both are family owned businesses established for over 20 years ago sharing the same ethical approach towards business and that includes the welfare of staff and, together, working towards carbon reduction. We are always happy to provide details of China factory should you have any concerns about sourcing a product which is produced there.

For more information and latest eco friendly umbrella’s made from canopy’s made from recycled bottles contact me today on 07976919696

We continue with your support to work with our other suppliers to make these world saving actions.

Karl Pearsall

PS. Our preferred bag supplier uses this site as its warehouse and accounts, leaving only their small office facility in the south.

PPS.  Would you like us to make an offer for your next promotion or event?

Supplied unbleached as standard which we regard as more ‘earth friendly’ but can be pantone dyed if required. All the lanyards can be personalised according to the client’s wish! Lot’s of possibilites. Below some pictures of this product…

For further information or enquiry, please contact Karl at source@originalthing.com.

Tetra Pak is a multinational food processing and packaging company of Swedish origin. It was founded in 1951 in Lund, Sweden, by Ruben Rausing. It was Erik Wallenberg who invented the tetrahedral package, today known as Tetra Classic. The company is part of the Tetra Laval group which also includes Sidel – who specialise in PET bottles – and DeLaval, a producer of dairy farming machinery and food processing equipment.

Ruben Rausing’s sons Hans and Gad Rausing ran Tetra Pak from 1954 until 1985, taking the company from a seven-person concern to one of Sweden’s largest corporations. At his death in 1983, Ruben Rausing was Sweden’s richest person.

Tetra Pak’s innovation is in the area of aseptic processing liquid food packaging which, when combined with ultra-high-temperature processing (UHT), allows liquid food to be packaged and stored under room temperature conditions for up to a year. This allows for perishable goods to be saved and distributed over greater distances without the need for a cool chain.

Tetra Pak’s first product was a paper carton used for storing and transporting milk. The first product was a package in the shape of a triangular pyramid (or tetrahedron), called the Tetra Classic. Ruben Rausing and his team had been working on the Tetra Classic design since 1944, and by 1952 had perfected techniques for making his cartons fully airtight, using a system of plastic coated paperboard.^[1] These initial cartons were tetrahedral, leading to the company’s name, derived from “four” in the Greek language. The first Tetra Classic package was launched in 1952,^[2] and in 1963 the company introduced Tetra Brik, a rectangular cuboid carton. Later, Tetra Pak launched other packaging formats such as Tetra Wedge (wedge-shaped), Tetra Prisma (round octagonal), and Tetra Fino (pouch-shaped). Tetra Pak also produced other non aseptic packaging systems – including Tetra Rex (gable-top), Tetra Top (paper and plastic moulded in one), Tetra Brik (foldable paper/aluminum container), and the now-discontinued Tetra King. Recent innovations have seen the introduction of laminated paper boxes for vegetables as an alternative to tinned goods. It is claimed that this new product, Tetra Recart, allows for more subtle processing^[3] of vegetables than canning permits.

Read more…

Please see below for pricing:

For any question or enquiry, please contact Karl to source@originalthing.com and receive a gift!

Wikipedia will tell you all about bamboo! Read the full article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo.

Like everybody, you may have heard of bamboo and might be curious about its great characteristics, Original Thing has found this article, which reveals some other great properties of this material that you may not have heard about.

Bamboo fabric is a natural textile made from the pulp of the bamboo grass. Bamboo fabric has been growing in popularity because it has many unique properties and is more sustainable than most textile fibers. Bamboo fabric is light and strong, has excellent wicking properties, and is to some extent antibacterial. The use of bamboo fiber for clothing was a 20th century development, pioneered by several Chinese corporations.

Bamboo fiber resembles cotton in its unspun form, a puffball of light, airy fibers. Many companies use extensive bleaching processes to turn bamboo fiber white, although companies producing organic bamboo fabric leave the bamboo fiber unbleached. To make bamboo fiber, bamboo is heavily pulped until it separates into thin component threads of fiber, which can be spun and dyed for weaving into cloth.

Bamboo fabric is very soft and can be worn directly next to the skin. Many people who experience allergic reactions to other natural fibers, such as wool or hemp, do not complain of this issue with bamboo. The fiber is naturally smooth and round without chemical treatment, meaning that there are no sharp spurs to irritate the skin.

Bamboo fabric is favored by companies trying to use sustainable textiles, because the bamboo plant is very quick growing and does not usually require the use of pesticides and herbicides to thrive. As a result, plantations can easily be kept organic and replanted yearly to replenish stocks. The process of making unbleached bamboo fiber is very light on chemicals that could potentially harm the environment.

In textile form, bamboo retains many of the properties it has as a plant. Bamboo is highly water absorbent, able to take up three times its weight in water. In bamboo fabric, this translates to an excellent wicking ability that will pull moisture away from the skin so that it can evaporate. For this reason, clothing made of bamboo fiber is often worn next to the skin.

Bamboo also has many antibacterial qualities, which bamboo fabric is apparently able to retain, even through multiple washings. This helps to reduce bacteria that thrive on clothing and cause unpleasant odors. It can also kill odor causing bacteria that live on human skin, making the wearer and his or her clothing smell more sweet. In addition, bamboo fabric has insulating properties and will keep the wearer cooler in summer and warmer in winter. The versatility of bamboo fabric makes it an excellent choice for clothing designers exploring alternative textiles, and in addition, the fabric is able to take bright dye colors well, drape smoothly, and star in a variety of roles from knit shirts to woven skirts.

Did you know Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth? Unlike trees, they grow to full height and girth in a single growing season of 3–4 months! Bamboo is a sustainable, light and resistant material that is biodegradable. Therefore, using bamboo as the main material for a product uses less resources and is good for the planet.

Close up picture of the Bamboo Bag

The costs are £1.44 each for 1000 pcs. plus delivery and VAT.

For other quantities please send an email to Karl:

source@originalthing.com

We have found this article by Andrew Michler on inhabitat.com and really liked it! We thought we would share it with you since it could be useful for your organisation. Unfortunately, we do not know the price of this product since it’s very new.

We cover a lot of solar panel technologies here at Inhabitat — some are pie in the sky, some are a few years down the road and some are exciting products that are actually available today. SoloPower’s new flexible rolling solar panels are in the latter group, and they stand to significantly reduce production and installation costs. With a notable 11% efficiency, the easily-installed thin-film panels may be able to give traditional silicon panels a run for the money.

We can’t wait to see what architects can do with lightweight, bendable solar panels. Rather than using expensive glass and aluminum frames, these units can be literally rolled directly onto metal or flat roofs — thus saving money in materials, time and the extra engineering and upgrades a traditional rack would take. The panels use a Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide (CIGS) process that can produce very long panels but does not require a clean room. The cells are mounted on a flexible foil, and pig tail connectors at the end plug into on another to expedite the installation.

Read more: New Rollable Solar Panels Make Roof Installations a Snap! | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World