Amy Campbell, Senior Editor

December 4, 2008

2 Min Read
Go U-Haul With Your Edible Packing Peanuts!

At U-Haul, green is the color of the season—in more ways than one. The company has rolled out a line of sustainable products for wrapping and packing holiday gifts. Its boxes come in red and green, complete with matching packing tape, so customers can use them to box or ship gifts without the need for wrapping paper. (Yay for saving trees.) The boxes themselves are made of up to 90 percent post-consumer content in addition to meeting UPS and FedEx shipping requirements.

Here's my favorite part: U-Haul's packing peanuts are made from potato startch and are 100 percent biodegradable. I'm not recommending that you eat them, but it is possible.

Also as part of its sustainability program, U-Haul offers Enviro-Bubble wrap made from recycled polyethylene, and furniture pads made from recycled denim. In addition to green-minded products, it's promoting enviro-friendly initiatives like its take-a-box/leave-a-box display, which allows customers to share their reusable boxes at no cost, and its online box exchange

Some of you are self-storage managers/operators in conjunction with U-Haul, so you already promote these fantastic products and programs to customers. Those of you who aren't should take a tip: offer a box-recycling program at your own facility. Most of you sell moving supplies already, and many of your tenants need boxes or have some to unload. So help them all out and do your bit for the planet.

Or you could just go out of your way to use some of U-Hauls eco-nice products this season. That's good, too.

Until today, I was unaware of U-Haul's green bent. But according to a press release I received, the company was founded by a Navy Veteran who grew up during the Great Depression. This has had an impact on U-Haul's mission: "Serving the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The company is "committed to sustainable development through environmental protection, social responsibility and economic efficiency.”

Go, U-Haul. This almost makes up for the time I reserved one of your trucks for a cross-country move and you completely dissed me. I'll be more gentle in my thoughts toward you now (just keep up the good work).

About the Author(s)

Amy Campbell

Senior Editor, Inside Self Storage

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