Why We Prioritize Domestic Manufacturing

Why We Prioritize Domestic Manufacturing

Most of the packaging solutions offered on EcoEnclose’s website are manufactured in the United States. As of the writing of this post, all of the mailers, shipping boxes, retail boxes, paper, water-activated tape, clear poly bags, and most of our protective packaging are manufactured in the US.

Additionally, most of the high-volume orders we custom manufacture (often referred to as “inline production”) for our brands, which order 5,000 to 50,000 units at a time, are manufactured domestically.

However, EcoEnclose has also developed a robust overseas manufacturing network over the past five years. Our overseas manufacturers span Europe and Asia and serve three distinct but important purposes:

1) Allows us to produce and offer solutions for which there aren’t domestic lines or source material: Hemp twine, Cello tape, Flexi-Hex, SpiroPack, Slivv, Paper Pouches, ReEnclose mailers, and various tape dispensers. For a full breakdown of the manufacturing location, check out our bill of materials.

2) Allows us to help brands that order 50,000 units of poly mailers or poly bags at a time achieve some circularity progress while meeting their budgetary goals. EcoEnclose offers myriad film blends across several geographies so brands can progress while still meeting their decision criteria.

3) Allows us to manufacture packaging as close as possible to where it needs to be delivered. Some packaging—such as inner packaging to provide dust protection from factory to DC—is used overseas at our brands’ factories, so it is best manufactured overseas as well—as close to the location it will be used as possible. EcoEnclose has a robust network of overseas manufacturing partners for these packaging solutions.

Domestic manufacturing has been a priority for EcoEnclose since we launched our business. Over the past few years, a handful of other packaging providers have entered the market, most producing some or all of their stock offerings overseas for ease, speed to market, or to reduce their costs or increase their margins.

Seeing these trends often leads us to revisit this question internally:

Should we move manufacturing our core stock packaging solutions - such as mailers and boxes - to Asia to reduce costs?

We usually leave these dialogs with the same decision: No.

We will keep manufacturing our stock offerings in North America and the US wherever possible.

While we will continue to build a network of overseas manufacturing partners to help our enterprise brands ordering 50,000 or more units at a time navigate their complex decision criteria and balance sustainability alongside their budget, we will be clear that any decision to offshore this manufacturing is likely being done at a disservice to circularity.

Why Manufacturing in the USA and North America is Core to Our Vision of Circularity

EcoEnclose is not just a packaging provider. We are a sustainability company on a mission to achieve Packaging Circularity, which means that one day, (1) packaging will all be made from packaging and can become packaging again in its next life, and (2) the inputs that go into the packaging supply chain are net positive and restorative, rather than extractive and polluting.

We have established a rigorous Sustainable Packaging Framework that guides our packaging decisions to help us achieve this vision. The framework pushes us to maximize recycled content and post-consumer waste, design for recyclability, commercialize the most promising innovations, bring transparency to our supply chain, and calculate life cycle analyses of our decisions.

By manufacturing domestically, we are creating a market for recycled content in the US, which drives the infrastructure investments needed to develop a vibrant domestic circular economy.

Our commitment to manufacturing in the USA is critical to our ultimate vision of circularity. When we manufacture domestically, we source post-consumer waste generated here in the USA. This means we are sourcing our own waste, which helps drive much-needed localized investments in recycling and remanufacturing infrastructure to eventually make all packaging out of packaging.

A decade ago, Americans happily recycled (albeit at low rates) but were unaware of what was happening to their recycled materials. In 2018, the China National Sword policy banned most recycled plastic and mixed paper from entering the country. This immediately shocked the United States recycling supply chain, leading MRFs to stockpile materials (or stop accepting them altogether). Most importantly (and positively), the policy also showcased to the public that our recycling system was largely shipping our waste overseas and demanding that other countries with less stringent waste management regulations and lower labor costs deal with our mess.

The policy showed us that shipping recycled content to Asia to be remanufactured into goods sold back to us would never be a viable recycling solution. We need to build circularity at home by investing in the supply chain required to reclaim materials at high rates and remanufacture them into usable goods right here at home.

Thankfully, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies are helping to build this circular supply chain. Ultimately, this can only be achieved if brands and consumers commit to using recycled content generated as waste in our backyard.

By sourcing and manufacturing domestically, we have greater transparency in sourcing. We can avoid the significant risks associated with the lack of transparency in some overseas supply chains.

The majority of packaging manufactured overseas is produced in China.

For paper packaging, in particular, manufacturing in China is worrisome. The Environmental Investigation Agency has stated that "the immense scale of China's sourcing [of wood] from high-risk regions [of the world] means that a significant proportion of its timber and wood product imports were illegally harvested." Research by Global Witness saw "worrying" levels of illegality in countries where China sources more than 80% of its timber.

As more conscious brands move from plastic to paper, it has never been more essential that paper be made with recycled content or (when recycled content is not feasible) that its source material is vetted and verified not to come from ancient or endangered forests.

Transparency is also a concern regarding recycled poly film. Sourcing post-consumer resin from the USA gives us greater visibility into its sources and supply chain and allows for greater traceability.

Today, we know our sources of waste are typically HDPE (traditional plastic milk jugs) and clean LDPE film (such as pallet wrap and agricultural film). When we engage with overseas manufacturers, we have little to no visibility into where and how the recycled content is sourced and if the post-consumer waste supply chain is continuously audited.

We also find that overseas supply chains tend to be more lax in adhering to chain of custody certifications. Packaging providers often put forth a certification claim that they do not hold; instead, the claim is held by some entity within their supply chain. This kind of practice is often fraudulent in the world of certifications (depending on how the certification scheme is structured). When we engage with overseas manufacturers, we are frequently confronted with vague claims discussed more clearly and transparently with our domestic supply chain partners.

By manufacturing domestically, we can visit and audit our plants more regularly.

Strong efforts to build a sustainable and ethical supply chain require in-person visits to our manufacturing plants, which have proven more feasible, economical, and efficient for us to do with North American manufacturers.

We have also found that auditing the deeper supply chain, all the way to the source of the recycled content that goes into our packaging, is more transparent and more navigable with domestic supply chain partners.

Domestic supply chain partners often allow us to innovate more rapidly by forging deeper, more mission-aligned partnerships.

By working closely with plants in the US, we have been able to innovate on our materials, inks, adhesives, and designs more quickly than we would be able to do with overseas plants.

For example, in early 2018, Algae Ink™ was still in the nascent testing phases. By the end of 2019, Algae Ink™ was being used to print on all of our paper-based packaging solutions, a difficult feat as most printing press operators loathe working with new ink formulations. This was accomplished because of the depth of trust and partnership we have forged with our plants and our ability to work closely with workers as they actively utilize innovations on the floor.

Today, Algae Ink™ is being used by manufacturers worldwide. Still, this breadth of availability was only possible with local printers and partners first adopting the technology.

We see similar trends in our efforts to push forward innovations such as bag-to-bag recycled content and Sway seaweed film. Eventually, these innovations will be worldwide, but they will often find the most success with mission-aligned early adopters within the United States.

By manufacturing domestically, we are investing in ethical jobs and local economies.

By sourcing American-made products, we (and, in turn - you!) are expanding your economic impact.

According to ABC World News, if every American spent an extra $3.33 on U.S.-made products yearly, it would generate nearly 10,000 new jobs nationwide. When workers spend their money on products made here, the dollars continue to be recycled, benefiting the local economy through the “economic multiplier effect.” These manufacturing workers also pay taxes on their wages that support broader investments in critical safety nets and nationwide infrastructure.

Additionally, while labor conditions in countries most likely to be manufacturing packaging have improved significantly over the past two decades, there is still a wide variance in labor conditions in factories across Asia and many concerns about the toll that 9-9-6 expectations in manufacturing facilities take on their workers. As such, finding factories abroad whose labor practices match our standards requires more investments in auditing and certification than with domestic partners.

Finally, each year, many Americans vote for increases to the minimum wage to help lift the working poor out of their cycles of poverty. Unfortunately, if these same Americans actively look for the lowest cost, overseas-manufactured products (and packaging), they risk reversing the outcomes they seek to achieve. By paying workers well and continuing to buy from the American factories that employ these workers, we are more likely to accomplish the social mobility outcomes we want collectively.

Domestic manufacturing builds economic and political resilience and independence.

COVID taught us how fragile global supply chains and freight can be.

In the heart of COVID, EcoEnclose provided a last-minute packaging supply to many companies whose inbound shipments were delayed by months or stuck in ports for weeks.

The last year has also reminded us that peace is quite fragile in many parts of the world and that our economic ties play a critical role in helping or harming global progress toward increased freedoms and democracy.

EcoEnclose’s focus on manufacturing in North America helps build our supply chain resilience and supports our vision for geopolitical independence and resilience.

A Final Note: Progress over Perfection

While prioritizing domestic packaging, we have deliberately built a network of overseas manufacturing partners. This is mainly because we often work with enterprise brands leaping to more sustainable packaging but find that the increased costs of domestically manufactured recycled packaging may only be feasible after some time.

As an EcoAlly to these brands, we will present packaging options that are manufactured overseas—in countries such as Malaysia and Mexico—even though our standard manufacturing lines for these solutions are in the US.

When we share these lower-cost overseas manufactured options with brands, we work hard to be transparent about the environmental and value trade-offs they might bring.

But we also recognize that for some companies, these lower-cost options allow for some progress toward their environmental goals. As with all things, we believe efforts to move forward toward sustainable packaging goals should not be stifled by the fear of making imperfect decisions!

Positive progress is always better than no forward movement at all.