Sorry Kermit...But It Can Be Easy To Be Green!

Recycled Bottle Cap Necklaces

In a previous post, I announced my partnership with a group of incredible people for an Earth Day campaign. In working towards the common goal of the campaign, I kept focusing on my profession and how even though I am in the print industry, there are still ways of being kind to Mother Earth.
The whole time I was consumed with making sure I lent my expertise in keeping the campaign green and how my addition to the group was about sustainable design practices. But, as we started getting entrees in, it hit me.
Be it a conscious decision or not, my whole life I have practiced some facet of green living. My grandparents were farmers who lived a great deal off of what they grew themselves. Both had lived through the depression and were very frugal. My grandmother even recycled her dishwater, which I still do to this day myself. And my favorite hobby is reusing/repurposing found objects. I'm the kind of person who considers a secondary use for an object before tossing it - whether it is broken or not.
I realized that there was more to my business than just sustainable printing. Everyday I'm reusing and recycling object around me. Whether it is using a preprinted piece of paper as a food shopping list or taking the backing from a used notepad and using it for shipping material.
I've even turned this habit into a little sidebusiness. People can buy necklaces I've crafted from used bottle caps and I'm working on getting a line of journals done that are made from scraps of paper and old shopping bags.
There are so many ways, big and small that you can implement into your daily routine. So, stop by the Earth Day blog that I helped set up and see what others are doing. And if you have any cool bottle caps, send them my way!