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Anyone actively pushing “green” materials?

I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
We’re getting more and more image conscious clients asking about PVC free/eco friendly banner materials, vinyls and such.

Just wondering if anyone’s had any success with pushing these products or if it’s ultimately going to end up a waste of time?

fully aware that even on the PVC free vinyls the release liner is still usually not recyclable.. seems a little half baked mostly to me, and the prices are generally not worth our time as a customer won’t ever may the markup!

BUT... we just got some samples in from a UK company that does PVC free mesh and frontlit banners and the quality was actually alright for a change, price point wasn’t horrible either (any extra costs obviously get passed on to the customer lol) so figuring it might be the right time to try get a product line set up.
 
SightLine

SightLine

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Not here...... Not one single request for anything "green" in the past 18 years.
 
binki

binki

New Member
We don't get any call for it. Other than our government accounts, everyone is price sensitive. They won't pay more for green.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
That’s the impression I’m getting; not sure if it’s worth being stuck with a roll of banner material/SAV if nobody is going to ever buy it.

There’s a good chance we’ll all eventually be forced down the recyclable route but it’s potentially not worth paying the premium for it just now.
 
WYLDGFI

WYLDGFI

Merchant Member
We offered a number of paperboards to try and substitute for PVC or foam boards and nobody ever really took us up on them. Pricing was same and never an increase actually....it just never took off. Some of our clients do hospital signs so they need to be cleanable. Paper product wouldn't work for that. Other people request falcon board or similar for certain jobs and we have that available to us from vendors. "Green" products just never really took off the way I think they could have or should have.
 
BigfishDM

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
Much more prevalent in wallpaper space. Just about everything needs to be PVC free and green to get in the door. Lots of green solutions are now out and available, but only fits specific markets in my opinion.
 
James Burke

James Burke

Being a grandpa is more fun than working
We're in a totally different market: cemetery memorials. And we're "going green" as part of our competitive advantage.

Since I'm only 20 miles from the region's largest monument company, we have discontinued a lot of the cut & polished monument work in favor of working with natural stone for memorials. Being located here in the Midwest, we have an abundant supply of unique boulders delivered practically to our door step courtesy of the glaciers that came through eons ago.

For some people, it's a relatively new concept. But around here it's been favorably accepted by our cemeteries, and it allows people to have something totally unique without spending their children's inheritance.

JB

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=JarsaCo&set=a.242708795752351
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
Up until now I just hadn’t seen anything with decent enough specs that was actually at a reasonable price point. Even the orajet stuff was about 3x the price of comparable media but worse outdoor expectancy etc.
 
J

JPR-5690

New Member
Its interesting to see these negative opinions, I actually convinced my company to offer eco alternatives whenever possible about two years ago.

Initially there was a lot of kickback from the company but within about 2 weeks my boss came to me talking about how well customers responded to the product alternatives.

Granted, we aren't known for having the lowest prices and we mainly do indoor signage but we completely stopped using any sort of foam board, we save and sell all of our waste media for recycling (including release liner), use PSA paper instead of vinyl for indoor graphics, and also offer pic-free banner material – and we've seen a huge positive response.
We actually have gotten environmental sustainability awards from SGIA two years in a row now :)

Whenever discussing pricing with new clients we talk about how our environmental certifications are the reason for the prices and 9 times out 10 they have no problem with the price.

Occasionally we'll have to negotiate price a bit to land a job but it's usually more of a "we'll give you a discount where we can" and less of a "we'll price match whatever shyte online shop you're looking at".
 
U

unclebun

Active Member
I would bet that you are in a metro area where people are generally "green" sensitive and businesses like to virtue signal. Whether customers are willing to pay for "green" products or not depends on how badly they want them. If your clientele don't care about "green" then you aren't going to make any headway offering it.

On the other hand, maybe our company has been "green" longer than yours we hardly ever have used foamboard in the entire history of our company.
 
PrintQueen

PrintQueen

New Member
iPrintStuff said:
BUT... we just got some samples in from a UK company that does PVC free mesh and frontlit banners and the quality was actually alright for a change, price point wasn’t horrible either (any extra costs obviously get passed on to the customer lol) so figuring it might be the right time to try get a product line set up.
Click to expand...


curious about your findings here?



We're always trying to offer sustainable alternatives for our clients. having difficulty with certain things myself - I couldn't find a good alternative to pvc banners, so we started a takeback program, and we are working with a local non-profit to make tote bags out of the old banners.
Ideally, we could get a flatbed in here and print direct to sustainable substates - right now, we are doing print/mount method... so, recyclability isn't that great - I work at a University print shop, so we are always trying to see if we can partner with other departments - i've been able to pass along some coroplast and foamcore to the art department for some classes, but I know everyones situation is different.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
PrintQueen said:
curious about your findings here?



We're always trying to offer sustainable alternatives for our clients. having difficulty with certain things myself - I couldn't find a good alternative to pvc banners, so we started a takeback program, and we are working with a local non-profit to make tote bags out of the old banners.
Ideally, we could get a flatbed in here and print direct to sustainable substates - right now, we are doing print/mount method... so, recyclability isn't that great - I work at a University print shop, so we are always trying to see if we can partner with other departments - i've been able to pass along some coroplast and foamcore to the art department for some classes, but I know everyones situation is different.
Click to expand...

Honestly the stuff seemed pretty decent. The mesh especially was about the exact same price as our current supplier just a little thinner.

We got our Colorado from canon and they have a pretty extensive recyclable/pvc free range if you ever wanted to take a look there.

As far as selling “green”. We’ve got that on the back burner just now until we sort out some other stuff but are hoping to start pushing those materials soon. Worth a shot!
 
Brandon708

Brandon708

New Member
I'd be interested in an alternative to coroplast for yard sign. Especially for the signs that are only used for 30 days then tossed out. If anyone know of something please let me know.
 
PrintQueen

PrintQueen

New Member
coro can only be recycled in certain areas - for something short term, maybe a falcon or eaglecell board? idk, i've never honestly used them.. always looking for alternatives to coroplast but havent had much luck....

my boss showed me this stuff that he's ordered through one of our print partners, but i havent used it in house.. it's called bubble-x
https://www.primexplastics.com/bubble-x/
 
V

Vinyl slayer

New Member
PrintQueen said:
coro can only be recycled in certain areas - for something short term, maybe a falcon or eaglecell board? idk, i've never honestly used them.. always looking for alternatives to coroplast but havent had much luck....

my boss showed me this stuff that he's ordered through one of our print partners, but i havent used it in house.. it's called bubble-x
https://www.primexplastics.com/bubble-x/
Click to expand...
THat sounds familiar - I think we got a sample of bubble-x a while back. It was cool, but kind of weird. Never tried it though. I don't think the local supplier actually got any stock - maybe no one wanted to order it. we were just shown small samples.
 
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