Weisenbach Recycled Products: Innovation in Action

Weisenbach Recycled Products is all about innovation. The company manufactures and distributes products made from recycled materials.

“We wear many hats in this business of recreating useful goods from waste. We are innovators who are inventing products from material that would otherwise end up in a landfill, and we are suppliers of everyday items made from recycled materials including brochures, pens, pencils, employee awards and much more,” said Dan Weisenbach, CEO. “Buying recycled pens, pencils and clipboards may seem miniscule, but it’s about the bigger picture, about being a part of the solution. And for companies who define themselves as sustainable, obtaining those products from a credible source is critical.”

You may recognize Weisenbach as one of the finalists in the Green Category at the TechColumbus Innovation Awards. The company collects plastic bottle caps at the Columbus Zoo, makes glass awards from bottles they collect from bars and restaurants and are known as the source for promotional products that help organizations define their brand as a green company.

After 30 years, and with two-dozen patents and trademarks, they continue to drive change with the mission of finding new uses for materials that would be considered trash. They take these ‘inventions’ and create practical, useful products from them. They then follow through by developing markets for those products while educating others about the value of recycling and recycled goods.

This summer, Weisenbach will launch a new initiative to assist purchasers in recognizing the value in their products and their team. True Content Assurance™ will spell out exactly what it is in each product.

“There are many ‘green certification’ labels, but they are often confusing or don’t translate for people,” said Weisenbach. “This way people can easily see the validity of our recycled products and know that it fits with their overall commitment to sustainability. If you are consciously trying to buy green, you should know what is in the product and where it’s coming from. With us, you can rest assured your product is truly healthy for the environment, and for the people who make and use it.”

Another Weisenbach niche is consulting with manufacturing companies to improve their bottom line by producing goods from their waste material. Dan coined the phrase W.A.R.M. (Waste as Raw Material) to describe this innovation. A great example of WARM in action is a successful collaboration between Weisenbach and Stonyfield Organic Yogurt, a green company that wanted to responsibly handle thousands of their plastic yogurt cups that could not be used because a formulation change made the ingredients printed on the cups incorrect. Weisenbach took delivery of the polypropylene cups, ground them down, and injection molded the plastic regrind into an ice cream scoop.They printed the 32,000 scoops with the Stonyfield logo and sold them back to the company to use as a promotional giveaway.

That success led to Stonyfield’s using scrap from manufactured yogurt six-packs for another project. The scrap consisted of a mixed material; metalized aluminum polyester film and rigid polystyrene scrap. Weisenbach researched the components and created a new mold to accept the blended materials, creating 350,000 flower pots from previously discarded material. The pots were packed with organic basil seed and compressed coir (recycled coconut husk) growth medium, also provided by Weisenbach, and given away at trade shows. The result was a useful product that furthered Stoneyfield’s green brand.

“As ‘green’ (new) members of TechColumbus, we are looking forward to participating in panel discussions and becoming part of the shared knowledge,” said Weisenbach. “TechColumbus starts discussions and links people. We are eager to contribute, and benefit from networking and information sharing.”

You can see more of Weisenbach Recycled Products on Youtube at www.youtube.com/recycledproducts and at www.recycledproducts.com.