Sanctuary Soil – Trash Can Soil Bag Recycling Label
“As a producer of organic soil products and a proponent of sustainable practices, Sanctuary Soil takes responsibility for its plastic bag waste stream by promoting cradle to grave recycling.” Mitchell Davis
Sanctuary Soil and Feed came to market in the organic soil business providing development, production and sales office end bulk soils and amendments through California Soils. In 2012, Sanctuary moved into the retail market, offering bagged products through authorized dealers throughout California, and in limited locations in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona. Although we were thrilled with the prospect of our bagged products becoming available on a larger scale, we had concerns as well. As a manufacturer, you have a responsibility to ensure that you look towards the future in every way. We know that we create a quality product, but what happens when people are finished with our bagged soils? The widespread use of plastics demands proper end of life management. It is estimated that plastics require 100 to 400 years to break down in a landfill. The last thing we want to do is produce a quality organic product and have a negative impact on our planet.
Our products are sold in bags made from low-density polyethylene, the same type of bag you will find in the frozen food section of your supermarket. It’s oil resistant, chemical resistant, flexible, and transparent. LDPE is used to make bottles that require extra flexibility. To take advantage of its strength and toughness, it is used to produce grocery bags and garbage bags, squeezable bottles, shrink wrap, stretch films, and coating for milk cartons. It can also be found in toys, container lids, and packaging. It is identified with recycling symbol number 4, as you can see on all our bagged soils and amendments.
Sanctuary Soil decided to be directly involved with plastic disposal and recycling for the bagged product’s life cycle from cradle to grave. We are addressing the issue through placing soil bag recycle containers at our authorized dealers for collection and recycling. We are encouraging consumers to bring in their used soil bags to our dealers for recycling at our facility. By working with our shipping department and our licensed recycling facility, Davis Pacific Services, we are aiding the reprocessing infrastructure by taking back our plastic as well as other companies’ bags from consumers and recycling into plastic lumber and bedding materials.
In 2010, the category of plastics which includes bags, sacks, and wraps such as those that hold our organic soils was recycled at almost 12 percent. Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials. Recycling 1 ton of plastic can save 1-2 thousand gallons of gas.
Davis Pacific Services has been providing a wide range of recycling services and products since 1999. At DPS, they take pride in the quality service they provide their customers with the utilization of the latest equipment in the recycling industry. This allows DPS to handle and process products in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. Their permitted, all-weather 200 acre facility includes a twenty acre concrete pad, where products are handled to ensure contaminant-free results.
Sanctuary Soil Recycle Bin at Hydro Bros in Modesto
