What We Can Do to Save our Planet - At Home & At Work

I suppose some of these suggestions are business-wise, and others personal.  I try to do what I can to save our planet and also save a bit of money. I know many of you that read my blog posts, are a bit like me. I'm a small business owner and do my best to keep Dunitz & Company "above water." These days with rising labor and product costs, software rentals, website maintenance and on again off again tariffs, it's getting tougher.

1. Take your reusable bags to the grocery store. Why buy bags or use the paper bags that are given to you?  I shop Trader Joe's more than any other grocery store.  The cashiers often seem surprised when I provide my own bags.  They've told me many times that a majority of shoppers no longer bring in their own bags, and use the (double bagged) paper bags they provide. Do you think this is inexcusable? I hate to pass judgement. But, it bothers me. While I'm at it, here's a shout-out to the Dennos Museum of Traverse City, MI. They sell our earrings!

2. Recycle and reuse cardboard boxes whenever you can. I've asked many of my neighbors to provide me with the small boxes from their online orders.  I know some can't be bothered. But there are a few that are dropping off boxes by my back door fairly often.  I still need to buy boxes for my business, but the ones they provide make a difference.  Why put these boxes in our blue bins when they can make another cross-country trip?   I can't stop my neighbors from shopping on Amazon. But I can use their boxes! Do you use recycled boxes?

 

 

3. I don't stop with the recycled boxes. There's loads of clean packing materials available out there. That includes kraft paper, air bubble packing, peanuts and clean newsprint paper. (The one thing I don't like to use is shredded newsprint or other small shredded paper. It's too messy.) My neighbors bring me some. I collect some with my own online shipments. (Think chewy.com - I have two big dogs.) But this is never enough. When I'm close to nil on packing materials I look to Facebook Marketplace and Offer Up. There are lots of people who have just moved and choose to find people who will use the boxes and packing materials they acquired versus dumping it all in the city's blue bins. What I like best is many of my wholesale customers, including museum stores tell me that they are not offended by recycled packing materials and even prefer it. Do you recycle packing materials?

 

4. Ink. Bins. Art Supplies. Online marketplaces are a good source. It doesn't stop with packing materials. Facebook Marketplace and Offer Up have been excellent sources for other things I use for my business, and for me. I've found these marketplaces to be excellent for finding computer ink, storage bins and art supplies. Many of you know I've taken up portraiture. A few months ago I found a woman selling her ink because her HP printer crashed. We made a deal and I drove to meet up with her. When I tried to pay her, she refused and actually gave me even more ink, all the partially used cartridges she had. We didn't know if they'd work, but they were genuine. Lucky me they all have worked.  I've saved a bundle by finding loads of drawing materials this way. What have you purchased lately from this way?

 

5. Saving "Grey Water" in the Shower. Whatever possessed me to do this? I have a small fountain in my garden. The 'pond' below it fairly large. The water evaporates over time. My dogs drink from it. I am always "watering" it to prevent it from going dry. I randomly bought a 5 gallon pail and decided to catch excess water when I shower. I only have a 30 gallon tank at my home which limits long showers. But, even with short showers, I've been catching a lot of water.  I've been carrying it to the garden and typically dumping it in the fountain pond. Sometimes I use it to water my flower pots. I think I'm saving a lot of water. That makes me happy. Would you consider doing this for your own garden?

6. Speaking about Gardens. I have a small composter. Many years ago, my friend Nicki recruited me to attend a seminar sponsored by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. At the time we purchased composters and other tools at the discount LADWP provided. I've been using mine ever since.  Unfortunately my garden is very shady. Things don't compost quickly. But - I do managed to get enough to feed many plants and small trees along the way. If you're in the Los Angeles area, you could take a class too. Smart Gardening classes are available. Do you compost?

7. Thrifting. I asked several of my small business colleagues what they do to "make a difference." I was floored that all of them told me they rarely buy new clothes anymore. (A couple told me they occasionally purchase something verified fair trade at their local fair trade store. Good to know.) They all told me they prefer shopping at second-hand stores, thrift stores or shopping online for vintage finds. Me too. For fun, I'll share my latest vintage find I purchased on eBay. Do you know the artist Kenny Scharf? He hung out in the 1980s with the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. (We're the same age which means he was painting in New York's East Village when I was attending NYU business school. Who followed who?Evidently he lives in Los Angeles now, although we've never crossed paths.) 

Can you add to my list? Share with me what you do to help save our planet and I'll add it to this post. Thanks for reading. And please keep supporting fair trade. -ND

DIY - Updating An Old Coat Rack

If you read my last blog post, I wrote a tribute to my friend and long time Dunitz & Company office landlord. LQ Jones was our landlord for 24 years. He lived downstairs. And our offices were at street level. We brought our dog or dogs to work every day all that time. That translates into a lot of walks in the neighborhood. Every day when we returned to our office, we'd get a view into LQ's residence. And if you check out the red arrow, this is where we saw his coat stand which was next to his desk. What always amused me the most was hanging from this coat stand was a pink and white cowboy hat. That always put a smile on my face. I'm sure this hat was never worn by him! And I never asked him the origin of it. (I'm sorry I never did.)

 

 

LQ (McQueen to us) passed in 2022. It took a while for his kids to get the building sold. And when they entered escrow, I was given notice to vacate. What wasn't acceptable for charitable donation, was being discarded, both by us and LQ's family.  Charitable organizations will not accept many types of furniture including desks or any pieces that are NOT in perfect condition. What did I do? I asked if I could have that coat stand. (Yes, of course, it's yours!)

Obviously I had never examined this coat rack up close. If I had, I probably wouldn't have asked for it. When it was delivered to me by LQ's son, I discovered a old piece that was very charming, but also in very bad shape. The stand was discolored from fading and peeling, unstable and had some minor water damage. After assessing the piece, I knew there was no way I could restore it to its original mahogany finish. (I discovered it was originally mahogany when I completely took it apart. The areas never exposed to sunlight revealed this.) Those round circles, I thought those were metal. Nope. They are hard plastic and when I rec'd the piece they were flaking and spreading strange dust everywhere. 

A bit of hip shooting and I got to work. I intuitively knew the coat rack needed to be completely disassembled. It needed a lot of sanding. My gut told me after prep work, spray paint would be my best and easiest option for restoring this old piece to a new glory. I already owned steel wool and sandpaper. And a trip to Home Depot resulted in purchases of dark green satin paint and antique bronze paint.

The restoration work took place in my driveway. I spread out old sheets and cardboard. Did I take a photo of everything as I was doing the work? No. Of course not. But my neighbors all stopped to ask what I was doing. "That's a big project." "That's a nice color." All those comments definitely correct. Here are more before pics.

I was careful when I took the coat rack apart and saved all the old screws. They're bronze and aged and look fantastic on the finished piece. It's a good thing I took before pics because reassembling it was a giant puzzle. And there were two types of screws meant for different parts of the coat rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I completed the project over two days. And I'm delighted with how it turned out. My home decor utilizes a lot of earth tones, greens, tans, browns. Here are a couple of detail pics and then one of the completed piece. After seeing these you might find an old rack for yourself on OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace. Why not?

As a tribute to LQ, I've hung an Australian cowboy hat I purchased on a vacation on my now refreshed coat rack. Did I mention that the stand no longer wobbles?

And perchance if you can see through my dining room window, you'll see this coat rack (with cowboy hat) proudly standing. I love it because now I think of my friend every day when I pass by it.-ND

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eco-Conscious Business Owners Make A Difference

I like to think I think about the environment when I'm making every-day choices in the Dunitz & Company office. I confess, I do have plastic zip-lock bags in the office.  I also use them over and over and over again for storing and organizing jewelry. Anything and everything I receive in parcels is re-used when I package the ones I send. (I sure hope some of my clients aren't offended by our use of some nasty boxes.) Recently I was thinking there must be other simple things I might do in my office that would reduce the Dunitz & Company carbon footprint.

I emailed my colleagues at Fair Trade Federation and other trade show neighbors. I sent a blast out to the Museum Store Association membership. I posted on our Facebook and Instagram accounts.

I asked: Do you make eco-conscious choices when running your day to day business operations? Is there something you do, that others could easily incorporate? I'd love to share your simple ideas in a blog I'm going to write. How can we make small changes that help our environment and reduce our carbon footprint. You don't need to write a lengthy response. It could be as simple as not buying packing peanuts, but sourcing them on Craigslist so they don't go to landfill. Or you only use cloth napkins in your office instead of buying paper towels. I'd love to hear from you.

Here are the responses I received. Some are simple. Some are WOW, this company really goes the mile. And you'll see, how some behaviors (ie. recycling packing materials) seem to repeat themselves from office to office.

Jenn Roberge, dZi Handmade: "At dZi, one of the many things we try to do is print on both sides of paper. If we do have a paper that has only been printed on one side, we recycle that paper for our co-worker, Sean to use for internal projects." 

 

Seema Bawa, Trovelore: " 90% of the boxes and packing material that comes into my home and office in any shape of form are re-used for shipping out Trovelore orders.  I rarely ever buy new packing materials. I always make sure that boxes are the right size. I hate it when I receive a small little something in a large box filled with excessive amounts of paper, bubble wrap or foam, even when the contents are not breakable.  I print all of my shipping labels on the clean side of used sheets of paper. I reuse all the paper from my kid's school projects where only one side of the paper has printing. Everyone knows to put paper in the "reuse" drawer. We don't print anything except for packing lists. We haven't printed a catalog since 2018. Our clients can see everything online."

 

Dave Debikey, Global Gifts, Bloomington: "We recycle as much as we can here at Global Gifts. What the recycling service doesn't take, I take home and put in my household recycling. Seriously! All of that plastic wrap and little bags that product comes packaged with is no longer accepted by the city or the district (Bloomington, IN) for recycling, so I take it all to the local Krogers, the only place collecting that plastic for recycling and repurposing. We also compost our coffee grounds and food waste. Compost collects in sealed jars and then goes into my compost bin at home for my garden.  Some years ago, we switched all our lighting to LED. It was a big upfront investment, but we're not constantly replacing light bulbs now or consuming as much electricity. With Covid, we were doing a lot more surface cleaning, multiple times a day. We began collecting rags for cleaning to avoid using a lot of paper towels. We source sanitizer from our local distillery, Cardinal Spirits. Finally, we recently decided to change our store supply sourcing for toilet paper and tissues. We now purchase from Who Gives A Crap. Their products are made from 100% bamboo and come without plastic packaging. They also give proceeds to provide toilets for people who need them."

 

Nina Moukova, Seeds to Sew: "We always use plates, glasses and silverware that we wash and always refuse the plastic stuff. We us cloth towels by the sink and wash them. We accept donations of jewelry boxes and have our volunteers rebrand them with our logo. We offer them as free gift boxes and our customers love them. Oh, and we haven't bought a shipping box or envelope in over a year. We accept donations of used shipping boxes and padded envelopes from everyone. If there is a label to be covered, our volunteers glue a piece of brown paper over it and they're good as new. Nobody has ever complained, actually quite the opposite."

Krista Bermeo, Krista Bermeo Studio: "I get most all of my bubble wrap from local buyers (retail stores) as it comes in from other vendors. It sure makes me wonder how many times the wrap has criss-crossed the country (or globe.)"

 

Karen Sparacio, Project Have Hope: "One way that we try to reduce our environmental impact is to reuse all shipping material, including boxes, cardboard inserts, paper stuffing and peanuts."

 

Joan Rasch, Sevya: "We've made lots of the eco-conscious choices we've made in our US and India office/warehouse. We use biodegradable plastic bags for our product packaging. We recycle all the paper we can for packaging orders and printing. Each staff person brings their own hand towels from home and launders them, rather than using paper towels. Reusable glasses and mugs are used for drinking water and other beverages including lots of  Chai tea!  And like so many other people, we recycle all of the cardboard boxes from our shipments that come in from India."

 

 Kelsey Neale, Latitudes Fair Trade: "We recycle all of the packaging that come in with the orders we receive. Our local UPS store even recycles packing materials. Sometimes if we have too much, instead of taking it to the recycle center, we will drive it down the road to the UPS store for them to re-use. We re-use sturdy paper and bubble wrap we receive in our orders when we are packing up fragile items for our customers. We get much more than we need and probably drop off 10-20 bags of paper and plastic packaging at the recycle center twice a month."

 

Anne Kelly, Mayan Hands: "We're really passionate about this. We ship a lot, packages of all different sizes. We are always scrounging for boxes to reuse - and laugh at how excited we get about finding really good ones. Our cars have boxes of all sizes and shapes in them. I guess others have noticed, since now our friends and neighbors drop off boxes. We always go to the 'odd box table' first before using a new box. Our shipments from Guatemala arrive wrapped in plastic to protect the contents and we reuse every scrap, along with any paper that they include. When we do have to purchase packaging, we seek packing materials with recycled content. We're glad to see there are more options for purchasing packaging materials with recycled content than even a few years ago. We're equally concerned about eco-conscious choices in the office and are eager to learn new ideas from others that will share your your blog post."

 

Jennifer Webster, Mayamam Weavers: "We try our best to be eco-conscious in our packaging - and we leave the plastic behind. For wholesale orders, we reuse boxes and packaging and add a recycle sticker on it. For retail orders, we line our boxes with one sheet of red tissue and a sticker and ship in a cardboard box. We don't include packing lists or paper receipts unless someone requests that since all the pertinent information has already been shared digitally. We try to find a balance between beautiful and avoiding waste. We want our products to arrive looking like a gift even to the person who purchased it themselves. If anyone orders gift wrapping, we wrap the shipping box in red paper and a ribbon, then slip it into a compostable shipping sleeve."

 

 Cael Chappell, Baskets of Africa:  "We do lots of things. We switched to all LED lighting. We participate in a wind energy program at our power company. We only use brown recycled boxes for shipping. (We never use bleached white ones which are quite toxic to produce.) We pay extra for the UPS Carbon Neutral shipping program. We recycle all paper and cardboard that can't be reused. We reuse any packing materials that come to us that we can. Believe it or not, our of our 7200 square foot warehouse/store/office, we product less than a bag of garbage per week. We buy compostable corn plastic utensils for when we can't use metal. And we recently quadrupled our insulation in our warehouse ceiling to conserve heating/cooling electric and water use.

 

It was a delight to hear from so many of my colleagues about what they do in their offices to help make ours a better world. Did I learn a few things that I will adopt as new behaviors at Dunitz & Company? One thing I definitely could do a better job at is saving and printing on reverse sides of used paper. I'm going to work on that. What changes will you make? -ND 

Making Changes for A Better Planet

I'm always looking for better ways, simple ways to conserve, recycle or help our planet just a little bit here and there. Perhaps you are too. I've read and seen numerous blog posts about zero waste. They preach big changes. And if many of you are like me, making significant changes in the way we live every day, can be tough. My thought is if everyone makes small changes collectively, these changes can amount to big differences for our planet. I'd love to hear your ideas. In the meantime, here are a few things I've learned from reading, tweeting and chatting with others. They're listed in no particular order.

 
1.  From time to time I reach out to Green America and LA Sanitation on twitter or facebook. I read their posts, and some of them inspire questions. I was wondering if all glass is recyclable. And I was wondering about all that oil packed food we purchase and how to best dispose of the oil. What I learned: Yes. Just about all glass can be dumped in the blue recycle bins. (Clean it first. More on that in #2.) Old light bulbs or broken drinking vessels are a few of the items you shouldn't toss in the blue bins. It was suggested that I keep a large glass container (mine often come from sun dried tomatoes I purchase) under my sink. Each time I have a recyclable container with oil, I add the oil to the container under the sink.  (You definitely do not want to toss oil down your drains.) When the container under my sink is full of oil, I was told to discard it in the trash, the black bin. Doing this allows me to dispose of many more glass jars into the blue bins.

 

2. Yes. Wash out all of those plastic and glass containers before dumping them into the blue bin. It was explained to me (by Green America reps) that they don't need to be sparkling clean or put through the dishwasher before disposing. But, most of the gunky stuff must be gone. Otherwise, these containers will contaminate everything in the bin and none of it will be recyclable. I was told that cost (financially and for conservation purposes) of using water to clean containers before tossing made complete sense. My trick for saving water is to fill containers partially full, close and shake. Shake a lot. No need to run the water 24/7 while washing this or that. I seem to wash and toss a lot of yogurt containers. One day, I'll learn to make my own yogurt. For the present time, I make sure that most of the plastic containers I receive can be recycled.

3. This is a great tip and certainly one I never thought of. A friend of mine, a optometrist told me that most people do not realize the containers their contacts come in are recyclable. Stop throwing them in the trash. Those plastic containers should absolutely go in the blue bin. (Yes, toss the foil top.)








4. Did you know that thermal paper receipts are made and printed with chemicals that are not recyclable. Those are the flimsy receipts from the grocery store, gas station and post office. One way we can help our environment is by accepting less receipts when given a choice. If you don't need a record of your spending, why take this nasty paper. Have you noticed the ink on this type of paper fades too? Not great for accounting purposes. And, when you are given them, don't throw them in blue bin. They are black bin - land fill trash.



5. Here's a two part-er. Why not consider using metal coffee filters versus paper ones that go into our trash bins?  Some experts say the gold-tone filters can last up to seven years. The choice is not only environmentally sound. It saves money. Part #2.  If you have a garden, use the grounds for plants. Some gardeners suggest coffee grounds are best for plants that love acidity, such as azaleas. Others say no matter the plant, coffee grounds make terrific mulch. Another article we discovered from Tips Bulletin explains how coffee grounds can help you rid of garden pests. Who knew?






6. More gardening tips. I don't cook very much these days. But I do steam vegetables and boil pasta. When I'm finished, my pots are full of water. What do I do?  I let the water cool and then I dump it in the yard and water my plants. Why put it down the drain? 





7. Don't buy the bag. If you're like me, you receive some sort of goody bag at every conference, gift show or meeting you attend. I even have a few from the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power from when they were dropping off efficient light bulbs at every residential door last year. I keep a bunch of bags in my car so I can easily take them into grocery stores, hardware stores and just about any other store where I'll need some. Why would you do otherwise?







8. I don't use liquid soap. I also know that a lot of people do. When I visit friend's homes, I always see liquid soap by every sink. When did liquid soap become so popular?  I say go back to using bar soap.Why do we need to purchase one more thing that comes in plastic containers? I love purchasing handmade soap from small artisanal vendors. Give it a try. You'll be hooked.

9. I operate a small fair trade business and ship a lot of boxes full of fair trade jewelry. Reusing packing material is not only good for the environment, it make economic sense.  We receive parcels filled with Styrofoam, bubble pack and biodegradable peanuts.  Many boxes are stuffed with tissue and brown craft paper. And many boxes we receive are in good shape. Heck, sometimes when I have a busy season, I look for people giving the stuff away on Craigslist. Why not use it all again and again? Dunitz & Company notes on our website that we recycle much of the packing materials we receive.  I had one customer ball me out recently for using Styrofoam peanuts in a box I sent her. I explained to her that we don't purchase these materials. Her belief was that we should never use these materials no matter the source. What are your thoughts?


10. I know some of my tips seem obvious. They are obvious. Just the same, I'm certain a lot of us forget the obvious. So, here is a reminder. Turn off the lights. If you're not hanging out in a room, turn the darn things off.  I think we all could be a bit more conscientious of this one! (I know this photo shows an old fashioned light bulb. It's a cool photo. And if you still have these type of bulbs in your home, change 'em out for the ones that are much more energy effecient.)

12. This one is on my to-do list.  If you're anything like me, you've got some old computers and non-functioning electrical gadgets or stereo equipment taking up space in your home (or office).  Finding the best way to get rid of this stuff may take a little online research. One friend of mine in Albuquerque told me there's a small local computer store that responsibly recycles these things.  In Los Angeles, we have Home Boy Industries. They're actually certified and guarantee not only to responsibly recycle, they also provide secure data destruction. Like you, I worry about all those old hard drives I've been holding onto for years.





11. Something small, makes a difference. Don't walk past that potato chip bag in the street. Why not pick it up and put it in the trash. Make the planet just a little prettier. When you do pick up a bit of trash here and there, it does make our living spaces just a bit more lovely. Evidently September 21, 2019 is slated as National Clean Up Day. Did you know this even existed? [I don't plan it. But I do participate. My neighborhood association organizes a clean up day each year.]

Choose a few of the options from my list to implement into your life. Start today. Why not reduce your carbon footprint just a wee bit and have a positive impact on the environment.  And then tell a friend or coworker about the changes you're making. It may encourage others to step up to the plate as well. Like I said in the beginning of this post, small changes by all of us collectively can make big differences. -ND