Green & clean

…as much as I can manage, anyway.

Living a green lifestyle has been important to me for a while, and it’s moved more to the forefront of my attention over the last six months or so. I shan’t go into general ways of doing this — there are a lot of sites out there that do it already and do a better job of it than I could. But I can address a small part of it here — how I’m running a business as green as I can.

First come the easy things — turning off my computer, my camera, my lights when I’m not using them. Rechargable batteries (in a solar charger) for the camera. Working with natural light whenever possible, and riding my bike to the local natural foods store for supplies. That’s low-hanging fruit; easy stuff.

After that, things I had to think a little harder about. I’ve begun getting more of my supplies at thrift stores and such. Pitchers for soapmaking from the Salvation Army, a couple of necklaces with pretty beads from Ares Thrift Store (which I’ll pick apart and reuse), a postal scale from a little consignment shop down on Third. That bike I ride to the natural foods place was twenty-five dollars at the Humane Society thrift store (and supports a good cause, to boot). A buck fifty for a screws-and-bolts organizer that’ll hold beads just as well.

I store my bath salts in reused popcorn containers, let my lip balms sit in the sun in glass jars that once held pickles or jelly. The wicker three-drawer chest holding my herbs and the matching one filled with beads came from the Salvation Army. I have an entire spool of copper wire that someone was going to throw away — that gets turned into wound-wire beads and other ornaments.

But there are some things you just have to buy new. Used olive oil? Nuh-uh. But buying it in bulk not only saves me money, it uses a lot less packaging (and a lot less oil to run the packaging machine, as well). Same with beads when I do buy them new; same with the wire I string my necklaces on. I save scraps of wire from necklaces to make a bracelet, from a bracelet to make a pair of earrings. I’ve gotten good at using a length of wire that’s almost too short and making it work anyway.

Instead of buying premade clasps (oil to run the machines to make them, oil for the packaging, oil to pack them up) I make my own from a spool of silver wire — yes, bought new (though I wouldn’t pass up such a spool if I found it used) but it’s probably spared the world a half-pound of discarded packaging already. And while I do recycle the thin cardboard holding bead packages when I’m gifted them, I’d rather they weren’t made in the first place.

My own packaging was a conundrum. I experimented with reusing glass jars purchased at thrift stores for a bit, but people didn’t find them appealing and when I thought about it, I realized why — bath salts are intimate, they go in a bath you’re going to put your body in; you don’t want the container to have once held peanut butter. So, I was going to have to buy new.

Plastic jars were less expensive, but I went with glass. Glass jars are far more reusable — plastic holds the scent of whatever came in it, it discolours and cracks in the sun, often isn’t safe to put in the dishwasher. If it comes to it, glass is easily recycled into more glass just like it. Plastic, when it is recyclable, takes more energy, leaves more waste, and can only be recycled into other products — plastic lawn furniture, for example, which then can’t be recycled when it inevitably breaks. Glass was by far the better choice, price difference notwithstanding.

A similar consideration drove my purchase of stainless steel containers for my salves and lip balms, instead of much cheaper plastic. And once I have a storefront of my own, I can offer to refill your Om Shanti bath salts jar or lip balm tin for a discount, encouraging people to reuse them often. :)

Shipping? I get boxes free at work; packing peanuts and bubble wrap come from a local trophy store that’s more than happy to let me take what they don’t need rather than throwing it away. Pretty printed address labels are nice but I can use a Sharpie just fine, too. And the post office is a long ride on my bike, but hey, I needed to get into shape anyway…

There’s only so much I can do. The computer, the camera, the lights; the stove to heat things for soap or lip balm; the car driving me to craft shows; the packaging inherent in things I do have to buy; even the light and heat to power the thrift stores I shop at. But I do what I can, and I invite everyone reading this to do the same.