The Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®) is one of the most trusted and credible resources in protecting natural resources, like forests, and overseeing that they’re being taken care of in an ethical way. The FSC^® creates a demand for paper products that are made both socially and environmentally responsibly. They do not allow their regulated forests to use water tainted by erosion or chemicals, nor do they use any hazardous chemicals or pesticides. Other regulations they strictly follow helps ensure deforestation won’t occur and the people living in these areas will not have their resources taken away.

There are many advantages to using responsibly sourced paper in your products. Not only does it protect the environment, but FSC^® certified paper is conveniently available in all US markets. For those who want to stay greener when creating paper shopping bags, the cost of certification from the FSC^® is not a huge expense.

Over the years, responsibly sourced paper has become more commonplace. But there is still a certification process to follow in order to use it. There are two types of certifications you can get, one for Forest Management and one Chain of Custody, which is what people will use if they have products or packaging that uses FSC^® paper. For a Chain of Custody certification, everyone from the forest, paper manufacturer, merchant, printer to the end user involved in manufacturing or trading FSC^® products, must be certified. They can do this if they sell less than $5 million of wood products and by contacting an FSC^® Accredited Certification Body.

Prime Line Packaging is a FSC^® certified vendor and we can help you create your environmentally responsible packaging. For more information on how Prime Line is environmentally conscious, please visit our Green Initiative page.