Rose City Label GREEN!
We constantly tries to find ways to reduce waste, resource consumption, and our overall environmental impact. Even before our first certification from Clackamas County in 2009, we have had an eye toward green business practices. This photo shows one of our many reuse projects – a friend of Rose City Label used surplus pallets to build beautiful cages for his garden. We are very proud of this type of reuse project – we have had several other items like this featured on the blog in the past. Here are some tips to help you on your GREEN journey.
Begin with the End in Mind
The easiest way to get rid of excess material is to not buy or create it in the first place. If you can buy from a more local source, or choose a product with less packaging, you will have less clean up to do on the back end. Rose City Label is GREEN – we always consider the eco-impact of our purchases so we can minimize the impact before it is created.
Negotiate with Vendors
Often, if you work closely with your supplier partners, you can return boxes or pallets for reuse. We do this with our core boxes – we buy many, many thousands of cardboard cores each month. These are delivered in large corrugated boxes. When the boxes are empty, our vendor picks them up when they are delivering our next delivery of cores. This marriage helps save the supplier (and us) money, but also gets more life out of that one corrugated box. Since Rose City Label is GREEN, we try to ask these questions as we make supplier selections. Not everyone can accomodate your needs, but you will never know if you don’t ask.
Get the Word Out
The only way we were able to give away the pallets in the photo above is that we let people know – Rose City Label is GREEN! They ask us about recycling and our friends, employees, vendors and customers know that we are into recycling. Because we have been doing this – and because we brag about it – people ask for surplus materials. We are happy to share! Spread the word.
Sell Your Old Stuff
As we have upgraded our equipment, we have sold off old equipment through used equipment dealers. Often you can get rid of general use items on Craigslist or Ebay, but for more specialized equipment, you need to network with specific resellers in your industry. Get to know these people so you always have a ready buyer for your surplus equipment. Even though a particular item is no use to us anymore due to the quality of label we are producing, there are always smaller startup companies that can use your old equipment.
Finally, Recycle
Because Rose City Label is GREEN, recycling is always the last option. It is much better than landfill, but recycling consumes many resources. If you have to, by all means please recycle all your paper, metal, wood, and any other commodity. Try the other things first, but if they don’t work, find a good recycler to dispose of your surplus equipment.
We Can Help!
Rose City Label is GREEN. A big part of that is helping customers, suppliers and friends on their green journey. If you need help or have questions, please call us today. We can help.