photo by: un-sung
When the store became a reality we knew that we wanted to incorporate all of our home recycling efforts into the business. All of our office supplies, business cards, bags, tissue paper, and boxes are made from recycled materials and we designated a paper recycling bin. Our plan for cardboard was to collect and drive it to the Sand Springs or Broken Arrow M.E.T. locations. However, this got to be a bit tedious and the cardboard began to pile up. A good friend told me about Gentle Earth Recycling who now comes once a month to collect and recycle our cardboard. I had not worked in retail since developing my earth conscious ethics and had not realized just how much waste can be generated by a tiny little shop (that sells tiny little things at that). Most of our vendors are using biodegradable plastics, recycled paper, and recycled cardboard but there are still a few that insist on shipping in #5 plastic bags that are recyclable elsewhere but not here in Tulsa. Currently we are keeping the bags out of the landfill by passing them on to the Tulsa Children’s Museum for their travelling exhibits. I suppose we could ship the bags somewhere to be recycled, but where? (if you know of anything let me know). Back to the boxes, now that we have our online store up and running we are also able to extend the life of boxes before they hit the recycle bin. Recycling is fantastic, but it does require energy so make sure to reuse your boxes first.
