Eco-friendly Products

There are many ways in which we can preserve our environment. Choosing promotional products which are made from recycled materials is one of them and on the Eco-Gifts website you will find a wide variety of ideas for your business gifts.

Mater-Bi
Mater-Bi is a revolutionary biodegradable material made from corn starch. It leaves no metal or toxic residue thanks to its natural composition. During composting, micro organisms transform Mater-Bi into water, carbon dioxide and humus at a biodegradable rate similar to that of paper.

ECO-REC
Mineral water bottles made from PET are reduced to flakes, granulated, dehumidified, extruded, quenched and solidified to create a substance called ECO-REC, a new eco-friendly material which can be moulded into pens and other products.

Tetrapak Containers
The aluminium foil sandwiched between the polythene and paper contained in Tetrapak containers eg.milk cartons is extruded and separated from the fibre stock which is then re-used for paper manufacture. The recovered aluminium and plastic is used to produce the Tetrapak Recycled range of products (soon to be added to this website).

Recycled Paper
200 years ago, almost all paper came from recycled products such as cotton and linen rags. The use of trees as the basic raw materail only dates from about 1850. Recycled paper is made from recycled fibre of which the most easily obtained and processed source is waste paper recovered from old newspapers and used packaging, both consumer and industrial.

Wood
Most of the wood used for the eco-friendly products on the Eco-Gifts website is essentially derived from the thinning out of forests to allow more space for the new trees to grow. This practice ensures that the forests are a sustainable source of supply and in turn, play a significant part in combatting global warming.

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Caps & Clothing
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Notebooks
Conference
Miscellaneous

Facts about the need to recycle
Each UK household produces about 1 tonne of rubbish annually, amounting to about 27 million tonnes for the UK each year.

Paper
33% of what we throw away is paper and cardboard.
The average family uses 6 trees worth of paper a year.
Every year we need a forest the size of Wales to provide all of the paper we use in Britain.

Plastic
Plastics forms 9% of the total household waste.
An average household throws away 45 kg of plastic a year.
36% of plastics are used in packaging.
Only 5% of plastics are recycled

Did you know ?

Plastics are made from oil. Oil is a fossil fuel so it is a non-renewable resource. It took millions of years to form under great pressure under the ground, from dead plants and will probably run out in the next half century. They do not rot / are not biodegradable. They will stay in the ground forever. Plastics produce poisonous gases (dioxins) when burnt in incinerators.

The world's annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today
It is estimated that nearly 3 million tonnes of plastic waste is produced a year in the UK.

Credit: Recycling Consortium

Did you know ?

The Paper industry’s use of recovered paper has risen steadily for the last 15 years. During 2004 4.6 million tonnes of waste paper were delivered to UK mills, while 2,587 tonnes were exported.

Despite paper's high recyclability, the UK has a fairly low paper collection rate - ie the amount of paper and board recovered relative to the amount used, with only 56.9% compared to an average of 57.3% in Europe.

However at 74.1%, UK mills have some of the highest recovered paper utilisation rates in Europe - ie the amount of recovered paper used, in relation to the amount produced. The average utilisation rate in Europe is 47%.

Credit: Confederation of Paper Industries

Did you know ?

We import 90% of the new wood fibre we use to make paper. Trees for growing paper are usually conifers. Forests grown just for paper making support fewer and less variety of living species.

Over half of waste paper is recycled. Newspaper contains about 50 % recycled paper.

Recycling uses less energy and water. A lot of paper only gets used on one side and is then thrown away. When sent to the landfill site the paper will slowly break down and produce methane gas.

Credit: Recycling Consortium

A single edition of a daily newspaper uses the wood from approximately 5,000 trees to make the paper.

One tonne of recycled paper saves approximately 15 trees and their habitat.

The average tree will drink approximately 2,000 litres of water each year.

Credit: Wild About Britain

Did you know ?

The UK produced an estimated 9.3 million tonnes of waste packaging in 2001. Of this 5.1 million tonnes came from households and the remaining 4.2 million tonnes from commercial and industrial sources.

2 million pairs of shoes are discarded every week in the U.K.

Credit: Recycling Consortium

Further Information:

Wild About Britain - British Wildlife Photography and Environment News, Forums, Events and Product Reviews

Give It Green - an ITV Granada Guide

Guide me Green - A growing resource for the ethically and envirinmentally conscious purchaser. Through this directory you can discover a green way of living and help you and the environment to a healthier and happier future.