...happy earth day!

Image credit:  lulinhapato10

So today is Earth Day - yay!  Some of you care, some of you don't.  Personally, I care and have for a long time.  I feel it's our responsibility to take care of our environment and our earth.  I have done a lot over the years to try to "go green" but I think the most challenging thing I've participated in was helping start the recycling program at my college over 10 years ago.  Being one of the few environmentally conscious people in a Midwest school was challenging to say the least.  To prove to the school that recycling was worth the cost of implementing such a program, we kids in Earth Rocks had to do the so-called dirty work for a while.  Putting bins in every classroom, office, computer lab and dorm area on campus was hard work.  Collecting and consolidating all the paper from those bins?  Well, let's just say that we really liked the environment to lug thousands of pounds of paper around campus in Midwest weather (heat, humidity, storms, snow, ice!).  Eventually, the mounds of bins waiting each week for the recycling trucks proved to the school decision-makers that recycling was something people would do given the opportunity.  (Thankfully, it eventually became a part of the custodial staff's job to take care of the recycling bins and we no longer had to chase rogue wind-blown pieces of paper across campus.)

Dr. Seuss

I think opportunity is key.  Not everyone has money to buy a hybrid, or space to start composting, or any number of other things.  But most of us can recycle, right?  I realize that there might be some areas where curbside recycling isn't offered, making it more of a challenge, but I think most of us would agree that recycling is pretty easy these days.  So I wanted to let you all know about the recyclability of the packaging we use.  USPS is making an effort to be greener and the USPS packaging we use is ALL recyclable!  To be honest, it's a struggle for me to see so much paper and packaging go out the door every day so having the bulk of our packaging being recyclable is important! 

When we first started up, I took the time to wrap each fabric order in tissue paper to make it look nice and pretty.  Then I realized the amount of unnecessary paper product I was adding to each order.  Sure it looked pretty and I know people liked it, but I couldn't in good conscience continue that practice.  I searched for some type of inner bag/envelope to put Priority orders in to protect the fabric from potential tears or water damage.  What I found was pricey and non-recyclable...and then I found the Tyvec bags from USPS.  Free and recyclable!  Now, our bubble mailers on the other hand...not so much.  Unless you want to take the time to tear out the bubble wrap from the envelope, most recycling plants will trash bubble wrap.  So please, until we can find a better alternative, reuse them if you can!  Same with the Tyvec bags...if you've ordered from us before, you may have noticed that I don't seal them, I usually tape them closed.  That's so you can use them again if you have need!  I hope some of you are able to do that, but for those who can't (or for all you International folk), I hope you can recycle them!

We'd love to hear what you do to be environmentally responsible so feel free to leave comments!

Happy Earth Day!!

I encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about how to protect and preserve our environment to check out this article from Care2.com...simple and to the point list, or you can click the links for more detailed info.