At Orion Trading, we specialize in bamboo stakes and horticultural supplies and are currently the ONLY importer and distributor of natural rubber based bands in North America. Our bands apart from others in our industry is that ours are made from 75% natural rubber. Natural rubber is harvested from rubber trees.  Most modern rubber products are made from synthetic rubber products made from petroleum. Our natural rubber bands have 100% more elasticity than their synthetic counterparts (mostly EPDM products) and 70% more memory once stretched. The real benefit in the agriculture setting is that our bands are formulated to degrade in the sun after 12 months. Once they fall off they biodegrade into the soil.  Traditional EPDM (synthetic rubber) bands last 3-5 years and have to be cut off, captured and put in a landfill as they will not biodegrade for about 75 years.

In the nursery and agriculture setting, very few products need to have a band(attaching the plant to the stake or wire or trellis for more than 6-8 months. At that point the plant or tree has outgrown its stake and pot and is ready to be planted in the ground or planted in a new bigger pot with a new bigger stake.  It is a real benefit for the customer that the band degrades and falls off after 12 months. That means that they don’t have to pay an employee ($18-25 per hour) to go out and cut off the old bands, capture them and dispose of them.  Also the natural rubber is much more elastic than the synthetic rubber and so as the plant or tree grows, the band stretches with it, as opposed to (girdling) constricting the plant or tree and causing damage to the outer layer of the plant or tree which causes the wholesaler to get less money for their tree or plant. 

We went to SouthEast Asia and found the premier rubber extraction and processing company in the world to work with.  They take twice as long as petroleum products to be manufactured and cost more, but they have 90% less estimated environmental impact both on the production and biodegradability.