Biodegradable Promotional Merchandise

Biodegradable promotional merchandise adds another dimension to your eco-friendly advertising.

What to do with products at the end of their useful life is not a new question and infact a continuing one given existing environmental issues. Many recycled promotional products have come into being partly as a result of this conundrum. The range of biodegradable products available is on the increase and seen as an effective way to mitigate litter and waste whilst making use of renewable or sustainable resources.

Degradable or biodegradable?
Something to note is that there is a difference between degradable and biodegradable items.
A degradable product needs for example light, heat or water to degrade, perhaps then merely fragmenting, and even then breakdown takes a very long time.
A biodegradable product is broken down my the actions of micro-organisms such as bacteria or fungi which makes breakdown much swifter and more absolute. Large areas of solid print can impact upon biodegradability and this should be kept in mind when producing as promotional merchandise.

Biodegradable choices
Conditions under which products are biodegradable differ. Popular are the ones that can be home composted as there is that certainty of ease of disposal (some degrade faster than others). Oxo-biodegradable products are already widely used for packaging and set to become very common within the promotional merchandise market -as they can breakdown (without toxins) wherever there is oxygen and can also be recycled where facilities exist. Other products require higher temperatures to degrade thus requiring professional composting and some degrade only in landfill.

The biodegradable advantage
Think of the promotional merchandise that you may currently have or ever come into contact with. What eventually happens to these products once they out-live their purpose? Corporate responsibility does not extend just to the purchases you make and consideration to the after-life of items should be made.
Sustainability is key to most things and biodegradable products are made from sustainable resources. Having a recycled or natural promotional product was a start and remains important however, being able to add to these with merchandise that will biodegrade can only be an advantage - not least to the environment!