Providing a Greener View on www.SeedofSustainability.orgAs the shopping bag debate renewed in earnest this year, a small, committed group of professionals and volunteers thought seriously about providing a broader forum for debating issues relating to consumer environmental issues and sustainability. Designed to provoke a thoughtful, independent debate process, www.SeedofSustainability.org was born out of the discussion and launches today, May 2007. The website is designed to be a forum and environmental blog resource of factual and credible news and opinion on the hot topics of sustainability within a variety of consumer areas -- packaging in particular. The Our Voice blog hopes to provide a helpful place for consumers and professionals to speak out on equal terms, provide information on both sides of the environmental debate prevalent in the marketplace, and to help provide useful links and fun science-based facts to other environmental movements, writers, and resources. This Blog will frequently feature guest writers and contributors and is currently accepting article submissions of approximately 500-1000 words. Registered users will also be welcome to the monitored Your Voice forum on the site upon sign-up. The www.SeedofSustainability.org staff is grateful to the Duro Bag Mfg. Company for providing funding and initial hosting resources for this effort in the area of sustainability education. As a part of their discussion related to their "Seed of Sustainability" campaign development and renewed commitment to using 100% recycled paper products, Duro Bag staff thought that it was important to also provide a means for independent voices, writers, and consumers to be heard on emerging environmental issues related to packaging. The Duro Bag Mfg. Company is a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, believes in the issues of sustainability as a best-practice industrial technique and is a proponent of paper as a renewable and recyclable resource. To join the forum discussion and post, go to www.SeedofSustainability.org
For more information, please contact: Behind the Scenes at Earth Day 2007The E-marketing group at Duro Bag was flabbergasted on Friday, April 27th to reflect within a follow-up format on the enormous turn-out and positive feedback they experienced from participation in Earth Day 2007 on the Ohio River as sponsored by the Cincinnati Earth Coalition on April 21st. What started out as a rather simple endeavor pulled together within just a few weeks, has now helped the team to enthusiastically plunge ahead on some rather ambitious initiatives to continue to spread an environmental message on issues of sustainable packaging in other cities and during other Earth Day events nationally. Seeing Doug Leland quoted within above-the-fold front page coverage for the bag debate in the same week on the front page of "The Kentucky Enquirer" further cheered the team that their work to help Duro Bag explore more ideas in the realm of sustainable packaging education was going in a great direction. The staff was also surprised at how many educators and earth science teachers came to the booth on Earth Day. Many of them indicated how interested they were to try to obtain many more of the 100% recycled bags with the Steinberg art mask and companion environmental message to use with their students to spark their creativity as well as use the fun facts on the gusset as a teaching and testing tool. ORSANCO, the Ohio River Sanitation Commission, dropped by the booth and expressed their frustration about how they had been having to use non-compostable bags for their annual river clean-ups. After seeing one of Duro's sturdy paper Lawn and Leaf bags leaning on one the nearby booth poles, enthusiasm grew for discussing how Duro could partner with ORSANCO for supplying compostable Lawn and Leaf bags for a future river clean-up event….and dreaming big about great it would be to move toward development of 100% recycled paper Lawn and Leaf bags. Lastly, a special invited guest to the Earth Day follow-up meeting and discussion was Sylvia Shor, mother of President and CEO, Charles L. Shor of Duro Bag. A long-time "green" enthusiast, Mrs. Shor volunteered during the Earth Day event, sustaining the booth team with refreshments. She has spent many years nurturing her farm in Northern Kentucky and has strived to protect its trees and green space from encroaching sprawl and reckless development. She was so incredibly enthusiastic about Duro's new 100% recycled paper initiatives and the educational emphasis the firm was taking saying, "I thought it was a wonderful way to wake people up. It's so great that Charles has decided to push the paper bags in conjunction with recycling. His father and grandfather would be very, very pleased with his commitment." Shaping the DebateThe humble grocery bag is now becoming a touchstone for the green movement. Duro Bag is helping to frame the debate in local communities by re-emphasizing their commitment to producing 100% recycled and recyclable paper handle bags for grocery shoppers. Read more about recent coverage of the bag debate in The Kentucky Enquirer in Northern Kentucky... Celebrating the Earth with Bag Masks    Held annually by the Greater Cincinnati Earth Coalition, the Earth Day event showcases environmental education initiatives and hands on activities for participants. This year, Duro Bag Mfg. Co. collaborated in this creative project in anticipation of the Saul Steinberg exhibit appearing later this summer at the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM). In order to create awareness of the naturally recyclable nature of paper bags, Duro Bag asked the Cincinnati Art Museum staff to create a grocery bag embellished with a special mask design reflective of the Saul Steinberg cartooning style. These activity bags were printed on recycled Kraft paper and used to engage children and parents into thinking about the use of paper as a sustainable and recyclable product -- one of Duro Bag's new environmental initiatives towards creating sustainable packaging. At least fourteen Duro Bag staff, friends and family members were on hand to help children (and adults!) color and embellish their special mask bags at Saturday's Earth Day festivities. Rick Hensley, of Duro's Information Services team, noted "I know while I was there we seemed to have a steady stream of 5 to 10 children coloring the bags. Also, the bags seemed to be of great interest to all of those passing by on the walkway." The creativity of the finished bag masks created quite a stir, and as Cindy Fink, Director of External Relations and Marketing for Cincinnati Art Museum observed "It was so cool to see the bags everywhere along Sawyer Point!" Saul Steinberg is known as one of America's foremost cartoonists and frequently used paper bags as a medium for his delightful masks. The "Illuminations" exhibit featuring his work is coming to the Cincinnati Art Museum from July 21 - September 23, 2007. In addition to distributing more than 1500 mask bags to the budding artists that participated, the bag art booth also created opportunities for conversation about environmental issues. "I've been saying paper is a better option for years. It would be great if more bags made from recycled paper were more readily available in stores," said John A. from Lansing, Michigan. Another Earth Day participant noted that "it would be great to see paper bags made from 100% recycled fiber at the checkout counter, what are you waiting for?" Eddie Gallup was also able to pique the interest of Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory on the issues of recycled paper who stopped by and noted that this was a "good cause and a good thing to do." Special thanks from Duro go out to all of the staff and volunteers who helped make this innovative event happen: Rick and Sonya Hensley, Eddie Gallup, Tony Martin, Kim McGillicuddy, Kyle Gassman and Kim Forsyth, Steve Champion and Stacey Grimm, Wanda Tepe and her son Brad, Greg Corwin of Image-Genesis, Emily Sullivan, Brian Heim, Marian Cosgrove, Jutta Lafley, and Cindy Fink of the Cincinnati Art Museum. An extra special thanks goes to Sylvia Shor who made sure the volunteers had plenty of refreshments while they were working with all of the children. For more information on the Saul Steinberg exhibit visit www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org or the www.saulsteinbergfoundation.org websites. For more information on Duro Bag's sustainable packaging initiative visit www.durobag.com.
For more information please contact:  Catch the Latest Wrinkles and Waves in Shopping Bags
These plain, serrated top-bags are brown Kraft and can be post printed or hot stamped. The stock handles are paper twisted natural Kraft with a "crepe paper" patch perfectly matched to the bag. Always pushing the envelope in new and creative substrate technology, Duro developed this new bag design in order to meet the current trend for making "new" items look "old" or comfortably-used. This bag design was initially developed for an elegantly distressed natural-look packaging line targeted to young urban males. Duro Designer staff sees endless opportunities to use this bag with retailers seeking to reach similar markets. For back-to-nature Gen-Xer's, trendy nonconformists, or expensively "hip" markets, these bags will assist in packaging your product and brand message effectively. Just add your own logo and your new campaign will be ready to roll out for Autumn shopping audiences. Our three stock size specific measurements are:
Order now to have plenty on hand for this year's peak shopping season.
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1 Duro Way Duro Bag Goes Green with the 'Seed of Sustainability'March 12, 2007  FLORENCE, KY - Duro Bag Mfg. has unveiled a brand new program and marketing campaign emphasizing an intensive commitment to a sustainable environment and the sale of 100% recycled products. The program is dedicated to helping their customers buy green products which help to reduce greenhouse gases, reduce solid waste going to landfills and boost energy efficiency by use of 100% recycled and sustainable bag products. Entitled the "Seed of Sustainability" campaign, Duro Bag is streamlining the ordering process for companies seeking a green and environmentally helpful packaging product. Using Duro's Original "Handle BagTM" as an initial 100% recycled product offering, the Duro Bag Standard Products Division developed a specialized and educational sales sheet for distribution to its sales force that helps to outline the parameters of paper as a renewable, sustainable resource. Using environmental "Fun Facts" for both staff and client education, the Standard Products staff sought to emphasize in their campaign the significantly measureable environmental and economic benefits of encouraging customers to use 100% recycled bag products. In line with helping the environment, the campaign materials are printed double-sided on chlorine-free 100% recycled Kraft paper. The "Seed of Sustainibility" campaign is centered around a simple seed illustration with a bag image nestled inside as a highlight, the motto of the campaign focuses on the question "Where does the bag begin?" answered by "With the seed of sustainability." It goes on to explain how a bag begins with a seed that grows into a tree which can be made into a paper bag that can be recycled endlessly ensuring that seeds and trees live on in a sustainable way. Continuing a more than fifty year tradition of innovation, Duro Bag staff want to provide more product offerings with 100% recycled paper availability. Look for big changes in coming months as Duro Bag Mfg. seeks to partner with the community on behalf of the world and its environment as they continue to ask "Just where does that bag begin?" Contact: |
Introducing the latest wrinkle in shopping bag... Duro Bag's Kraft Crepe Collection. These bags use an 80# "crepe-like" (wrinkled and crinkled) substrate for shopping bag production stocked in our three popular sizes: Tempo, Tote and Towner. Perfect for applications where you want to convey a hip, unique, or "distressed" packaging option in your store, this Kraft Crepe stock bag is a true find.
