And the winner is…

Wright Choice Promotions just won the Glendale Chamber of Commerce “Go Green” award!! We’re so excited to be recognized by the business community for our efforts. There are over 900 Chamber members, so we are very proud to have been selected for this honor.

Green imprints on wearables

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, MASOwner, Wright Choice Promotions

More Press!

We’re so excited about all the press we’ve been getting lately! The Arizona Repulbic mentioned us in an article last week.
Click here for the link.

Wright Choice Promotions in the News!

I had something exciting happen at the Green Summit last week that I wanted to share with everyone! Wright Choice Promotions made the evening news!!
Please click on the link below to view a recap of the Green Summit. My 10 seconds of fame are towards the end of the clip. (Saving the best for last I would like to think!)
click here
There were so many new and innovative eco-friendly products and serivces at the Green Summit it was awesome to be selected as one of the few that were spotlighted in the news clip.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported our efforts to “Green” the promotional products world!

What’s all the fuss about BPA?

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

Welcome to my Blog

July 18th, 2008

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!