These new filters will reduce the time you spend sifting through quotes, and help you find the best-fit faster:
Your quote request will only go out to specific suppliers you select and suppliers that meet all your advanced filter criteria. You'll find these new Advanced Filters in the Suppliers section of quote requests.
💡 Tip: As you add more filters, the supplier count in the top right of the quote request page will change.
The perks of plastic are that it's low-weight, low-volume, and water-resistant, with a low unit cost. But plastic takes a serious hit when it comes to recovery, because most of it ends up in landfills. That's where alternative plastics come in, but they can be tricky. Many still contain plastic and can only be composted in the high-heat environment of an industrial facility.
That's why we're excited about a new addition to Lumi Materials: PHA film. PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) is a compostable plastic that’s entirely bio-based, derived from bacterial fermentation. Unlike PLA, PHA does not contain any fossil fuel derivatives, making it renewable and plastic-free. It's even home compostable, and will break down in a few months.
On Lumi, PHA is available as an alternative option for plastic film products including compostable poly mailers and inner bags. It offers the benefits of poly — water resistance, low weight, and low volume — but with a more sustainable end-of-life. The look and feel is comparable to the poly you're used to — smooth and malleable with a little stretch. It's shelf stable, as it's resistant to UV rays, heat, and moisture.
PHA can not be recycled, and composting is the ideal end-of-life phase. While municipal composting is not yet widely available, the reality is that even in a landfill, these bags will break down much faster than traditional plastic (which takes decades to degrade into microplastics). Brands looking to use PHA may want to consider adequate messaging for proper disposal, or a takeback program to better ensure best-case disposal by composting in bulk with an industrial facility.
Right now, there is one supplier offering PHA film on Lumi — BIOLO. BIOLO is one of the only PHA film suppliers in the US and the first PHA supplier on Lumi. They extrude, convert, manufacture, and print bags made with Danimer Scientific's polyhydroxyalkanoate PHA based resin, Nodax® which is derived from canola plants. Their PHA bags are certified by TUV OK Compost for home composting, up to 2mil. Cover photo via BIOLO.
Are you thinking about switching to plastic-free packaging? Then you know the options out there can be limited. That's why we are so excited to share three new sustainable, paper-based products that are now available directly from manufacturers on Lumi:
All three products have the benefits of paper-based products, being curbside recyclable, compostable, renewable, and made from responsibly-sourced paper. In addition, they are available from US-based manufacturer Seaman Paper which helps reduce the transit time and ocean freight costs from overseas production.
Previously, Chinese suppliers were only available to Lumi Managed customers. Now, anyone with a Lumi subscription plan can send quote requests, get pricing, place orders, and send messages directly with hundreds vetted factories in the US and China. Factories in China are a good option for many plastic and fabric items. They're also an efficient choice if your packaging is shipped to a co-packer in China. Browse suppliers in China →
Poly mailers and fabric bags
With high-quality rotogravure capabilities and more affordable tooling, Chinese factories are a great fit for products such as poly mailers, compostable poly mailers, and standup pouches. Inner bags span a range of materials, from clear plastic and frosted plastic to various fabrics.
Boxes, cartons, and collateral
Sourcing paper items overseas can be an opportunity to optimize your supply chain if you're already receiving finished or kitted goods from China.
Great news! More suppliers have joined Lumi, opening up more options for product categories that you can order:
To find the suppliers manufacturing these products, use the Products filter in the supplier directory to search for the product you're looking for. Need a hand with your first quote request? Use this guide to get started.
Thanks to all your feedback on the new Quote Comparison features, we've been hard at work on a set of improvements that are now available in Lumi:
Stay up to date on COVID-19 impacts with improvements to the Network Status tracker. You can now see a map displaying uptime across factory locations in the United States, as well as trends across the US and China.
The latest update to Lumi includes a set of features we're particularly excited about: an all-new way to manage your quoting process and choose the best option for every packaging component you need.
With this release, we’re giving your team the tools to better understand costs, compare across manufacturers, and respond directly in the Lumi interface. You can read more about this release on our blog.
We've created some resources so you can learn more about how costs are broken up, how to use filters, and accepting and rejecting quotes.
Today we’re announcing the Standardized Quality release — a set of features that raises the bar for quality standards across every factory in the Lumi Network. This release gives you the tools to identify and report quality issues.
Your reports contribute directly to our quality monitoring systems, which helps improve manufacturer selection tools and overall reliability for all members of the Lumi platform! We're really excited about it and have written more in depth on the blog.
What's new:
Plus, our guide on how to run a quality inspection using the Acceptable Quality Limit (AQL) procedure
