ICONS
We want to make it easy for you to make the right choice.
Although it takes a lot more time and effort to make clean products, Good Office Day places importance on this responsibility, from beginning to end. Follow the icons through the life cycle of the products.
Post-consumer recycled materials
Post-consumer recycled content is created by consumers after a product has reached the end of its use. This material is diverted from the landfill and utilized in the production of other goods.
Plant-based material
Our bags are made from plants: PLA (bio-based material made from renewable plant materials and corn starch) and PBPT (a binding resin added for stretch). The plants used to create these bags are not suitable for consumption.
Printed with soy ink
Soy ink is a renewable resource produced from a reliable resource that can be easily produced, soy oil. Because this oil is naturally grown, it can degrade more than four times faster than petroleum-based inks. This simply means that the full life cycle of soy ink is required for the same amount of printing so it is easier to wash out during the recycling process and means that less ink needs to be dealt with in trash disposal. For those of you with soy allergies, you should be glad to know that the manufacturing process strips the soy proteins from the final product. This means that soy inks are entirely safe and have shown no risk of causing allergic reactions.
Compostable materials
When it is time to discard or dispose of a product, compostable products break down into carbon dioxide, water and inorganic compounds. They then biomass in small pieces in as little as 90 days. Compost works because millions of tiny microbes consume the waste and transform the organic material into compost. This has many benefits including fertilizing and improving the soil health without leaving behind toxic residue. Whereas recycling takes energy, composting does not. The lifetime value of a product can continue longer. In an ideal world, all materials would be reused and recycled several times before it’s eventually composted.
Highly renewable resources
A renewable resource is one that can be used repeatedly and does not run out because it is naturally replaced. Because bamboo and sugarcane are grasses rather than hardwoods, they both grow quickly in as little as 3-4 months (trees can take up to 30 years to grow). No replanting is necessary - unlike trees, which never grow back after being cut. Bamboo can grow in environments with depleted soil and water and actually return nutrients to the soil, which improves the degraded area. Bamboo also does not require fertilizers. Recycling or processing a tree into tissue can take much more water and energy than the minimal processing necessary to turn bamboo and sugarcane into paper. BPA can also be found in recycled tissue after drinking and cleaning recycled paper.
Refillable & reusable
Plastic pollution is a credible crisis but if used correctly, these items have a long life cycle due to the nature of the product. Refillable products are used to eliminate single use plastic, and can be used with recyclable and compostable interior components, thus increasing the life cycle. Buying refillable products, instead of new saves almost 70% on CO2, 65% on energy and 45% on water, according to research conducted by The LCA Centre.
