Business Cards Made from Recycled OceanBound Material

OceanBound plastic is a sustainable product, made from plastic at risk of entering the world's oceans collected from five countries where it is most likely to end up in the oceans—China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Every pound of OceanBound plastic used is a pound of plastic that would have been permanently lost. In this project, Envision Plastics collects and recycles the waste, Klöckner Pentaplast processes the material into sheets and Plastic Printers produces business cards from the sheet.

“At my former position in the plastics industry, we had our business cards created from recycled Mountain Dew bottles. Everywhere we went, our cards generated a very positive reaction from our customers, members of the media and with those whom we met on Capitol Hill,” said Gene Sanders, executive director of SNAME, in a statement.

“Without the oceans, seas and waterways, we have no maritime industry, so our commitment to the ocean eco-system should be greater than anyone else’s. I am proud that we are leaders in this area, and we need more companies and organizations to follow our lead,” added Sanders.

“A key to ensuring financial stability around the effort will be getting big consumer packaged goods companies to commit to buying OceanBound resin,” said Tamsin Ettefagh, vice president of Envision Plastics, in a statement. “Otherwise, Envision may have to reduce its purchases of material.”

“In order to make collecting what we define as OceanBound plastic waste sustainable, Envision and the places we collect the scrap from need customers willing to make longer commitments than many of one-off purchases we have seen,” she added.

From June 2017 to May 2018, Envision recycled 5.2 million pounds of plastic recovered from coastal areas of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. According to Ettefagh, “the company is set to collect the same amount in the second year of the initiative, putting it on track to meet its [current] goal of 10 million pounds.”

Through the project, Envision pays prices to suppliers that would be competitive in the U.S. market, so the foreign suppliers can create jobs, instead of relying on volunteers, and generate bales with specifications roughly equivalent to domestic curbside bales.

“Plastic Printers is beyond excited and so grateful to have the opportunity to impact our environment and planet by helping find ways to repurpose OceanBound plastic. As we have requests daily for business cards made out of recycled materials, it is with great pleasure we help announce that recycled OceanBound plastic cards will be available beyond SNAME HQ staff soon,” said Katie Buss, director of marketing for Plastic Printers, in a statement.