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Choosing Polybags Made in the USA Means Less Child Labor

Categories: Food for Thought

What were your children doing when they were four years old? Or if you don’t have children, think back – what were you doing when you were four years old? In the United States, for the majority of children, four is a happy age. It’s almost time for kindergarten, where there are many exciting things to learn and new friends to make.

In other parts of the world, however, four years old means you’re old enough to go to work, all day, every day, earning roughly the cost of a small cup of McDonald’s coffee. Sometimes even less than that.  UNICEF reports that over 150 million children are exploited this way; the issue is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, followed closely by major supply chain countries like Philippines, India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil.

Who Is Making the Polybags Your Company Uses?

Let us take you for a moment inside a polybag manufacturing facility. There, you’d see very heavy rolls of unprinted stock material. There’s huge machines for printing and finishing bags; in the US, these machines have safety guards to prevent workers from losing hands, limbs or even their lives while they’re making polybags – in the rest of the world, not so much. There are supplies of ink, shipping boxes, forklifts, and more. It’s absolutely no environment for a child to be in – especially when they should be in elementary school!

When sourcing your polybags, it’s important to take many factors into account. Cost is obviously an important consideration, but it’s important to understand that often exceptional low prices promised by overseas vendors are only possible because of a combination of environmentally damaging production processes, substandard materials, and the use of child labor.

Choosing Made in the USA polybags – whether that’s from us or another domestic vendor – allows your company to move forward in confidence that the bags – which have your company’s name and logo on them, which are seen and used by your customers – aren’t made by children working in dangerous conditions. The only way that child labor will ever be stopped is when the demand for products made by children disappears. You have an opportunity to make a difference. Make buying Made in the USA a central tenet of your procurement process.