Bioplastic Adds ‘Charm’ to NYC Clean-Up Effort

This past spring, thousands of employees of cable television and internet service provider Comcast celebrated the Global Citizen festival in New York City by helping clean up their local communities wearing charm bracelets made of Green Dot’s Terratek BD bioplastic.

When Global Citizen asked Green Dot to design a promotional product for the festival, the biopolymer company knew that it would have to come up with something that was both eye-catching and representative of the values promoted by Global Citizen, which is an organization that partners with others to end poverty. So Green Dot created a bracelet inspired by Chinese Feng Shui “good luck” coin bracelets.

The Global Citizen red “O” charm is made from a new bioplastic formulated by Green Dot, Cottonwood Falls, Kan., from materials certified to meet U.S. and European standards for compostability. The charm is attached by a black waxed cotton cord. The charms were injection molded by Albuquerque-based Vamco Manufacturing, which also built the tooling. After use, the bracelet can be disposed of in a composting environment where it will biodegrade.

Said Green Dot CEO Mark Remmert, “We wanted to create a piece to demonstrate that sustainability can be stylish. This simple, distinctive design will garner attention from across the street or around the world, but if disposed of properly, it won’t linger in landfills for thousands of years.”