Blue Poppy Environmental Blog

By Bob Flaws

Blue Poppy prides itself on its strong environmental position and practices. Here at Blue Poppy, we don’t just talk the talk; we walk the walk. For instance, we are a 100% zero-waste certified facility, reusing and recycling everything possible. As a result of our efforts, we have reduced the size of our trash container from a standard business size dumpster to a 64 gallon residential container—something we are very proud of.

We are considered a 100% wind-powered facility because of the wind power credits that we purchase every month. And as a printer we always specify recycled paper and soy ink for each one of the books we print. We use only recycled paper in our office. In addition, every box we use to ship your orders has an average of 54% recycled fiber content, of which post-consumer material is 49%.

Our product packaging decisions are driven by our commitment to an ongoing process of environmental improvements. For instance, our Blue Poppy Originals and Blue Poppy Classics herb bottles are made from recycled plastic and are themselves recyclable. And the new bottles that we are now using for our external line are made from PET. We selected this bottle because PET bottle recycling is more practical than many other plastic applications. The primary reason is that plastic carbonated soft drink bottles and water bottles are almost exclusively PET. This makes them more easily identifiable in a recycle stream. PET has a resin identification code of 1.

A major use for recycled PET bottles is for the manufacture of polar fleece material. (I bet you have at least one garment made from this in your closet.) It can also make fiber for polyester products. PET is also an excellent candidate for thermal disposal (incineration), since it is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen with only trace amounts of catalyst elements (but no sulphur).

In other words, we at Blue Poppy look at every aspect of our manufacture and operations to see how environmentally friendly we can make them. Blue Poppy – your partner in creating a sustainable world.