OK folks, first, I want to admit that I have run this post before! I will be putting new content onto the new blog, but before my Blogger site disappears into obscurity, I am going to be bringing over the best of the content over there. Not necessarily in any ranked order! But this one has been on my mind lately, so here it is... re-purposed... recycled...
We try very hard to reduce our impact on the environment. We try not to eat food out of boxes (aside from the chemicals and junk in it) we don't have to throw out a box! (Larry's a pretty good cook, too!). We compost our food scraps, or feed them to the chickens (or the chickens raid the compost bins!). We feed our dogs some of the extra meat bits that we don't eat, like hearts and livers and bones. That's the reduce part, I guess.
We also reuse egg cartons, and we hope our customers don't mind that our eggs come in clean, but reused containers. Most of our customers bring us egg cartons, and many non-customers bring us their egg cartons. I keep an eye on them for sturdiness and cleanliness, and when they aren't fit for use, we recycle them, or use them for fire starters in our fireplace in winter. It's another nice way to reduce our impact on the environment and keep the cost of our eggs down (egg cartons are not cheap!).
There's another re-usable product that no one does ever bring back to us. These last a lot longer than an egg carton, and if they get damaged, are also recyclable. Jars from our canned products! These, too, are not cheap, though I do seek them out in thrift shops to reuse, instead of buying new. But I'd love it if customers brought them back to me. I have offered discounts on our canned goods if folks brought us back jars, and it didn't do any good! So I am hoping that just imploring you to keep these out of the landfill... and realizing that they can be re-used may encourage folks to drop them off... Empty jars make me think of creative ways to fill them, so I'd love for those (and the metal rings) to come back to me to be filled up with yumminess again! Think about it!
