Let's start by making you feel guilty

[Erik Sine]

I don't know if any of you sign makers have been contacted via phone yet but make no mistake it's coming.

Here come the marketing spin-doctors once again starting their new campaign across all the susceptible trade magazines & Orgs like ISA all under the guise of being "Environmental friendly", "GO GREEN!!!" "Eco Friendly!!!!!" "Let's help the environment!" "We need to be environmentally responsible!!!"

These marketing coined phrases are used to serve nothing other than make you feel guilty for using products that contradict them.

So the latest products? Vinyl and ink. Special PVC vinyl (Such as BIOFlex) that will biodegrade in 30 days and not "80 to 100 years" in a landfill.

I remember in my childhood hearing such myths as "Don't swallow your gum, it will stay in your stomach for a 100 years"

In recent events, my phone conversation with Karen Knabel who was concerned about the rogue evil neon bender "working out of his garage carelessly dumping mercury into his sink" worked aggressively to ban all merc tube neon out of her Vermont State. Because "the neon guy in his garage is not monitored and should not be trusted with dispensing merc" but was okay with the average house hold consumer, commercial buildings occupants, who use mercury fluorescent tubes for lighting will simply break the bulb first to get the bulb to fit into the trashcan which then ventures to the landfill. How many fluorescent lamps are there vs. neon lamps? How long does a fluorescent lamp last vs a neon lamp? 1 year compared to 15-20 years for neon (think of that disposal rate). A good sign service tech will properly dispose of that neon tube vs. the consumer who sends it to the landfill, think of the poor seagulls.

All we need is another little tree hugging Karen Knabel in some state somewhere to make another uneducated decision and start a new legislative trend. Every state and city has a Karen in their population.

A few weeks a go my field UL inspector and I had a good chuckle about "lead". "Don't let that hit the ground, it may just sink right back where it's dug from"

Back to vinly and inks (cough) that are better for our environment.

Costs?

Well if you want to help lead (no pun intended) the tenth Crusade you can look to spend about 30% to 50% more doing it. At the same time you can educated your client (Maybe even hold up a picture of Al Gore at the time of your presentation) and let them know if they spend 50% more with you than Acme Signs downs the street who uses his Solvent Inks and 3M vinyl proudly he will help the environment and the Polar Bears who are supposidley drowning will thank them for it.

Now if memory serves, I think I have seen solvent inks, vinyl, banner vinyl, that is not even 10 year sold, dry up and flake away into our atmosphere. Uh oh, now it's in our atmosphere! We could be breathing that in, or yet a field mouse living out in the wetlands where we could have a nice golf course of expand out backyards.

I even remember hearing about plastic grocery bags not degrading, uh....right! I buried a plastic bag in my backyard back in the days when I use to ask "Paper or plastic ma'am?" or "Would you like to kill a dolphin or tree today?" I remember un-earthing that bag 30 days later and found that only 50% of the bag existed. Hmmmmm

How long as vinyl been around? I didn't know it's been around long enough to make the statement 80 -100 years to degrade.

I don't know about the rest of you but I enjoyed tailgating this weekend at Qualcomm Stadium, grilling my transfat sirloin steak over a charcoal grill and smelling all the pollutants of similar tail-gaters grilling away. I smoked a fat Kulua cigar I got for my birhtday and drank some beers. What helped make this football NFL Sunday event, the six freaking F-18 Hornets that did a flyby over the stadium with the cool colored vapor trail in our atmosphere. At the end of the game all well piled into my Ford V-8 Truck that gets about 15-13MPG

But I wondered as I stood in the stands with beer in hand rooting for my Chargers if those F-18 decals where eco-friendly?

Edited September 11, 2007 by Westcoast Sign Guy
****My Facts wrong on merc amounts Fluorescent vs Neon

[Travis]

My dad always used to tell me if I could figure out how to recycle vinyl I would be rich biatch!

[fishing nut]

My dad always used to tell me if I could figure out how to recycle vinyl I would be rich biatch!

Talkin about recycling. We had a company come in and test our water. They told us that city water goes from flush to fill in 3 days. (thats, toilet to faucet) Just something to think about. :pp: to and back again

[imanut]

Talkin about recycling. We had a company come in and test our water. They told us that city water goes from flush to fill in 3 days. (thats, toilet to faucet) Just something to think about. :pp: to and back again

So, when a person states that "the coffee tastes like shit"-----------it's really true.

gn

[B.O.P.]

Regarding the subject, as the old saying goes, me feel guilty? Not a chance! I'm a realist, not a doom-n-gloom fantasist.