Buy Recycled Across Your Business: Ideas and Resources

Buy Recycled Across Your Business: Ideas and Resources

Hopefully you’ve found that EcoEnclose makes it insanely easy to find sustainable, recycled packaging for your ecommerce business! 

But what about other areas of your business? We believe that one of the most impactful steps an eco-minded business can take is to focus on  sourcing 100% recycled wherever possible, with a focus on post-consumer waste generated domestically.  

In this blog post, we share ideas to help you source recycled supplies across your business - whether this is related to the raw inputs for your products (such as fabrics, yarns, apparel, etc), your warehouse and office supplies, or primary product packaging. 

Do you have additional resources you'd like to see added? If so, email me at saloni@ecoenclose.com and we'll add them to the list!

TEXTILES, FABRICS, APPAREL AND YARN

Fab Scrap (Upcycled deadstock fabrics recovered from top fashion brands)

Queen of Raw (deadstock fabrics)

Terra Textilia (deadstock, vintage and handwoven natural textiles)

Unifi / Repreve (recycled polyester fabrics)

Vivify Textiles (gorgeous, recycled, luxury fabrics)

Evrnu (Nycycl is a technology that repolymerizes fabrics into new materials)

Renew Cell (Unique technology that dissolves cotton and other cellulose fibers, transforming them into a Circulose® pulp)

All Made (ready made t-shirts and apparel ready for screen printing)

Recover Brands (ready made t-shirts and apparel ready for screen printing)

Everywhere (ready made t-shirts and apparel ready for screen printing)

We Are Knitters (recycled yarn)

Darn Good Yarn (recycled yarn)

Natural Recycled Yarn (recycled yarn)

Wool and the Gang (recycled yarn)

Textile Exchange: Textile Exchange is not a supplier of fabrics, but does offer a myriad of resources to help you find sustainable and recycled textiles. The fee for membership starts at $500.

GLASS AND ALUMINUM CONTAINERS

Aluminum and glass are both "endlessly recyclable" meaning that the materials themselves can - technically - be recycled over and over with no degradation of the raw materials. Despite this, however, very little aluminum and glass in the US is 100% recycled.

On average, glass in the US is made with 23% recycled content (referred to as "cullet"). While aluminum in this country is made with an average of 70% recycled content in the US, it is interesting to note that Coca-Cola has pledged to achieve 50% recycled content in its cans by 2030, suggesting it is a far from this point today.

Here, we share potential sources of aluminum and glass packaging with high rates of recycled content.

Glass Now (largely 100% recycled glass bottle options)

Packaging Options Direct (offers a myriad of recycled glass bottles)

The Ball Corporation (large manufacturer of aluminum packaging with high recycled content levels. Contact them for access to distributors) 

Novelis (large manufacturer of aluminum packaging with high recycled content levels. Contact them for access to distributors)

Tecno Cap Products (large manufacturer of aluminum packaging with high recycled content levels. Contact them for access to distributors)

METAL, JEWELRY AND OTHER ACCESSORIES

Rio Grande (Responsibly sourced, upcycled, recycled and reused supplies for jewelry makers)

Halstead Bead (Responsibly sourced supplies for jewelry makers, featuring recycled options)

Sadoff Iron and Metal Company (Source for recycled scrap metal)

YKK (Small set of recycled zipper offerings)

Benthos Buttons (UK company offering 98% and 100% recycled buttons)

OFFICE AND WAREHOUSE SUPPLIES

There are a myriad of ways to incorporate recycled content into your warehouse and office supplies. Everything from plastic pallets to paper clips to pens can be made recycled.  

Greenline Paper (recycled office supplies)

Dolphin Blue (recycled office supplies)

Recycled Plastic Factory (recycled plastic benches)

Greystone Logistics (recycled plastic pallets)

Eco-Pens (a variety of recycled pens)

The Park Catalog (recycled benches and tables)