Easy Eco-Friendly Practices

Easy Eco-Friendly Practices

Some parts of being a ‘green’ business are very difficult and costly, but some aren’t.  By having a constant eye toward  reuse and recycling, you can make small steps that add up to big change for the planet over time.  This is one simple way that we helped to make the world more green.

A few years ago, we updated our logo and branding.  It isn’t a huge change, but we try to stay consistent and not use our old, outdated logo when we are dealing with customers.  Unfortunately, we also had a large inventory of note cards with the old logo –  we didn’t just want to throw them out.  Instead, we found an easy way to re purpose them.

  • First, we printed the new logo on the bottom of the cards using our office color laser printer

  • Next, we cut off the top half of the card.  Now instead of being a folded card, it is just a single flat note card – still big enough to write a simple ‘thank you’ to a vendor, customer, or friend.

  • Finally, we used the old ‘top half’ of the cards for scratch paper in the office.  They are  nice quality material, and they are perfect for writing notes within the office – nobody cares that there is an old logo printed on the back of a simple note.

This isn’t a huge step to stop global warming, but it is one simple, easy, free way that we can all make a difference.  More importantly, as we do more of these things and celebrate them within our company at staff meetings, the more we find new and different ways to make a difference.  It seems, we have found, that these ideas kind of feed on each other – one person learns from another, and before long, you are all working toward the important goal of making the world a greener place – one small step at a time.

Do you want help making your company more green?  We can help.

We are happy to provide resources and suggestions for any company that is trying to reduce their environmental foot print and become a better corporate citizen.  It takes all of us working together, so we are happy to lend a hand.  In the process, we will probably learn something from you, too!

Call us today – we are happy to help.

Latest recycled pallets

Seems like everyone is finding a use for our old pallets.  Check out these beautiful pieces.

 

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  • Reduce – the best option is to use fewer resources from the start.  If you can do the job with 500′ of label stock, then don’t use more.  The same applies to every other resource, ink, paper, or packaging in your product.  Reduce at the source – this is the gold standard.
  • Reuse – if you can re use the same box, paper, ink, or computer again, that is also a great victory.  Re using a product for the purpose it was originally intended is a great way to extend life and reduce cost to your business or household.  If you can, use the product again.
  • Upcycle – If you can’t use a pallet again as a PALLET (since we generate so many), these photos show a way to use the same material for a higher purpose – to build backyard decks. This isn’t what the PALLET was designed for, but it is an alternative, high value use for the product.
  • Recycle – if all these are exhausted, grinding the pallet up into bark chips is the final option.  At least it isn’t ending up in the landfill!

The idea is to USE LESS at the start, but if that isn’t possible, we want to get more life out of every resource with the least possible processing.  Processing and reworking anything is costly and difficult – it takes even MORE resources to rework that pallet.  Using it as a PALLET is ideal, but if not, then upcycle if possible.  It that isn’t available, then recycling is still a better idea than making more solid waste.

These are NOT easy problems, but we have solved several of them.

Need help?  Call us today!

More Pallet Recycling..

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Once our Rose City Label team gets inspired, it is hard to hold us back!  In a previous post I showed some home furniture built from recycled pallets – now another RCL family is taking it to the next level.  This beautiful fenced garden will keep the vegetables and flowers protected from dogs this summer.  It is also very attractive!

Since we get our raw material in on pallets – and ship much of our finished product via UPS or courier – we end up with many extra pallets each week.

These pallets are sometimes collected and recycled by a local service, but when we are busy, they can’t always keep up, so we are finding new ways to use these excess pallets.

We hope this inspires all of you to reduce, reuse and recycle in your own companies – and, if you need pallets for your own backyard project, please call us today.  We are happy to donate them to help with your project.

 

Need great labels – from an eco-friendly company?  
 
Please call us today – we can help.

 

Small, Local, Green

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Rose City Label is proud to be a local, family owned business.  We try to support businesses like us as often as possible.  Recently, we needed a few specially sized metric bolts in our shop and we chose to use our local hardware store – Wichita Feed and Hardware.  These guys are right down the street and the service is excellent.  Here are just a few of the reasons to support your local merchant rather than a big box retailer:

  • Closer to our shop than the national chain store
  • Easy parking
  • Small store with very helpful service
  • Experts took me directly to the proper drawer to get what I needed
  • In and out in 6 minutes
  • I only had to buy what I needed – 6 screws
  • No packaging to throw away
  • Supports local family owned business keeping money in the neighborhood

Better product – better price – better service.  Other than that, I don’t see any reason to support your local hardware store!

If you want to support a local family business and get great service like this, please call us today.

 

 

 

Reuse and Recycle – Pallets at Home

Reuse and Recycle – Pallets at Home

We are proud of our team – they take our Eco Commitment seriously at home and at work.  Here you see a home project built from pallets recycled from Rose City Label – we love it.  We encourage everyone to keep their ‘green’ hats on at work and at home – help the earth and get yourself some free building materials at the same time.  Win win for everyone!

Thanks for all of you that ask us about our green certifications.  We remain the only nationally certified label printer in the Pacific Northwest through the TLMI Project LIFE program.  If you want to work with an environmentally friendly company that walks the walk every day, please give us a call.