Going green

[GULFCOASTFRMR]

Since ours summers are so slow, we're using our down time to make some changes. My suggestion was to go green. So, I started researching and was very surprised at how hard it is to find info on recycling. I figured all we use is basically paper and glass, the most commonly recycled products. After numerous hours on the net and on the phone with every recycling/scrap company in town this is what I've found out:
Only white paper and cardboard are recycled. So I now peel the color ply off and recycle the white core. It's not that much extra effort to seperate the two. The color ply peels of pretty easily once you start a corner.
Glass in the form of jars and bottles are the only kind our recycling will pick up, which is of no use to me. Privately owned recycling companies couldn't help, they can't even get rid of the glass they already have.

My question is. Why is it so hard? Is it just the area I'm in? I've heard that glass can only be recycled so many times? True? Why? Are there any artists out there that work with the materials we use. We donate the scrap mats to art league, schools, and the boys and girls club when we can, I'm just surprised at how hard it was to find info and how little is really recylced.

Anyone else going this route? I didn't think it would be that hard to start a recycling program but apparently it is.

We've featured the new Bonanza line from LJ which is made from recycled wood. It's cheap, so the customers love it. And its nice and simple mouldings for our regular starving artists.

We also were planning on repainting the walls and have found low voc paint. And will change the lights to energy saving bulbs as we replace.

The plan is to have a grand-green-reopening when our snowbirds return in the fall.

 

[brian..k]

Sorry to say that as far as I know you can't recycle framing glass. I have tried myself in the past only to be denied. I never thought about stripping the color off of mats to recycle them..great idea. I have to say though..and this topic has come up before..it's a bit odd for a picture framer to "think green". It's kind of like being a vegetarian owning a leather shop. In the grand scope of things we are cutting down trees constanly to make our wood frames. I guess ever little bit makes some difference though.

 

[Julie Walsh]

Picture framing glass is not recycled in Toronto (Canada) either. I've been told it is "garbage"; such a shame.

 

[Dermot.]

These are a few Green options you can consider also.

Old computers etc. recycling two options from Dell: ....... BTW for those of you outside the US Dell have recycling programs worldwide as do some of the other computer manufacturers http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...rvices_recycling?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=mn
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/environment/en/recycling_main?c=us&l=en&s=corp

The use of entrance matting to help your green program is another approach, have a look at the Green Trax approach to matting from the Superior Manufacturing Group.......(See the left side panel on the home page)
http://www.notrax.com/

Here is some information on recycling glass in BC Canada http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/recycling-and-garbage/pdfs/facts-glass.pdf

When searching for an option to recycle picture framing glass............describe it to or search for options to recycle “Flat Glass” or “Window Glass” there is only one program worldwide that I’m aware of that is specifically designed for recycling picture framing glass as such and that is in the UK..........I suspect that most other options for picture framers to recycle their glass will fall under the “Flat Glass” recycling programs......

 

[Bill Henry-]

As far as the glass is concerned, the stuff we use contains lead. It cannot be recycled for use because it may end up in drink containers – some nonsense about kids, brain damage and mental retardation.

I frequently, but not routinely, throw mat scraps in with the cardboard. My belief is that during the recycling of the cardboard, it goes through a bleach process, anyway. If you can toss printer paper which may contain inks, why not mat board which may contain dyes? I don’t see the distinction. And what happens to the staples that are still embedded in the cardboard boxes?

I sometimes (but not routinely) toss wood scraps into the recycling bin, too. Paper is just wood pulp, right? It's going to get ground up in the recycling process.

BTW, welcome to The Grumble! Tell us a bit more about yourself, "GulfCoastFramer", like your real or nickname for starters.

 

[Bob Doyle]

My dump takes mat board as is in their mixed paper/office paper section. Moulding scraps are another matter! Maybe if I go all chop then I'll be greener, and the scraps will be SEP!

An artisan here in Maine uses glass in her concrete constuctions as a filler, but she has more glass than she'll ever use! I have been thinking about maybe table tops out of concrete and glass. Got the idea from an article I read in Natural Home (I think) about a company in NYC that uses glass and road waste for their constructions. Combined that with an article I read about a company called Chen Design that makes countertops. Now to get past the idea stage and into the production stage!

 

[auntiesarahjayne]

In our city/ State rag matboard is recyclable. I called and asked.

We also recycle our strainer stock and we take our metal frame scrap in and actually get $ for it!

We've had schools and community centers ask for scrap foam cor and plexi glas, mat scraps and we've had "artists" ask for broken glass. So we have scrap bins all over the place! (And contact numbers when the bins are full.)

 

[Framar]

I think it was on This Old House that there was a visit to the company that manufactures countertops from scrap glass and concrete - absolutely amazing product - but I think they were using bottle glass - their main trick is highly polishing the end product like marble - gorgeous!!!

 

[Pat Murphey]

My favorite "This Old House" recycling story occurred when [Tom Silva's brother] Dickie's house burned down and they all pitched in to rebuild. Of course the basement oil tank leaked as a result of the fire. They were required to pay generously to haul all of the contaminated dirt off to a location where it was converted into an asphalt product. Then they paid to bring it back to the home site to make their driveway. No irony in this?

 

[Bob Doyle]

We also recycle our strainer stock

I read that and thought sink strainer? first! Not bringing that to the recycling center!

Framar, that and the lead in our glass gives me pause about a glass and concrete counter.

BTW it was Cheng design, not Chen design as I noted before that does the concrete counters.

 

[Terry Scidmore CPF]

Welcome to the grumble!

Why not start a grand greenup of your business area as a model and promote the heck out of it? Maybe the other business around you would participate with a recycling event, a "green garden" for your business area, new energy efficient lighting for the businesses, etc.

Recycling up here is pretty easy. There are private and government programs in place to make it easy.

We can recycle paper, plastic, yard waste and food scraps of particular types through business and residential recycling programs. We get bins for paper/plastic and for yard/food waste. Recycled paper and plastic products are available in many stores. There is a new firm that has started making countertops from recycled paper mixed with resins. It has been a big hit at the home shows.

We have worm bins and rain barrels through city and county programs. A new program is being introduced to handle rainwater runoff by using swales and rain gardens. I am the official area "worm bin co-ordinator" for my neighborhood - meaning years ago the city gave me a bunch of worms and a worm bin and told everyone that I would be giving them worms. They gave me info to hand out on building/buying worm bins, how to use them, etc. It is kind of a wierd job to go around to people and ask them if they would like worms - but, heh, worms are our friends. At least that's what I tell people.

Some of our new building projects are all built green - Highpoint housing project was rebuilt over the last couple of years using all green materials, including using water permeable sidewalks and streets in some sections so that rainwater soaks through the cement, goes into swales/rain gardens, catchement basins, etc, before discharging into Longfellow Creek - which has been cleaned up and restocked with salmon. It is really something to pour out a gallon of water onto a sidewalk and watch it soak into the cement. It looks kind of like popcorn instead of smooth cement.

Sometimes scrap window glass is mixed with asphalt for some paving projects - you can see it because the glass gleams like little diamonds in the light. Otherwise, there is limited recycling of glass through companies that make glass cullet for landscaping purposes or glass artists who use a limited amount for fused glass projects.

A really neat landscaping look is to line a sidewalk with lights set below the surface of the walk on either side, and cover them with colored glass cullet.
At night when the lights are on it looks like stained glass running along the sidewalk.

Georgetown near my store has a lot of artists who recycle things and show them off during their garden and art walk during the summer. Some of the recycled ideas are broken tiles set in as tiles in patios and walkways along with leftover marble and granite from the kitchen countertop manufacturing places in the area. A lot of people down here have patios and retaining walls made from recycled concrete, marble, granite, and limestone. The leftover chunks after making the countertops are put out in bins for people to take away.

King County used to have a program for promoting business that were envirnmentally friendly by recycling and/or buying/selling recycled products.
They changed their focus from small businesses to large business a few years ago and left a lot of us small guys behind because we didn't have the name recognition of Costco or Microsoft. Like - being environmentally friendly is only good if you are big??!!???

The Seattle City Light has a program for business to recoup some costs for replacing lighting with more energy efficient lighting. There are also City and state programs for insulation/heating/cooling upgrades to save energy for businesses.

So - you might check out the King County website and City of Seattle website to see what they offer and it might give you ideas for your area. Also check out High Point's web site to see how they redesigned this area.

Good luck and hope you got some ideas from this!

 

[HarryGMCPF]

Along these lines.....

Whatever you might think of his recent shannanegans on the radio, the Greening the Cleaning Products from Imus are wonderfull. I use the Glass/Window Cleaner in the shop and it rocks. Even cleans MG without streaks. Made of all "green" ingredients and best I can tell is perfect for framing. Plus 100% of the after tax proceeds go to the Imus Ranch for Kids with Cancer in New Mexico......

Go get some and give it try.........

 

[Rick Granick]

Ed Begley Jr. also sells a line of environmentally friendly cleaning products, and to the best of my knowledge he does not insult anyone.
Rick

 

[stud d]

Bonanza??? What does this recycled stuff from LJ look like? I have not heard of it.

Anyhting to do with Imus, goes in the trash. A sad sad pathetic ugly man.


I get a magazine called Dwell about Modern Houses that are green friendly. It is really neat.

PL

 

[David Waldmann]

I have to say though..and this topic has come up before..it's a bit odd for a picture framer to "think green". It's kind of like being a vegetarian owning a leather shop. In the grand scope of things we are cutting down trees constanly to make our wood frames.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "green". If you let a forest grow and don't cut any trees, eventually they all die. Their carbon is then oxidized by rotting and released into to atmosphere as carbon dioxide. With the focus today being on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, one thing we can do is lock up carbon by making things out of plant matter, including moulding and mats.

 

[Baer Charlton]

To continue Davids position, because of the furniture and decorative wood arts in the United States we have larger tracts of diverse hardwood forests that are harvest-able today, then we did in 1900. And this has occurred before "tree hugging" became popular... it was started by their great-great grandpas.

But we still conceitedly view the millions of feet of moulding our industry consumes.... and think WOW we are laying waste to the land scape..... relax, we don't suck up even 1% of the world hardwood. Furniture (which we are part of) utilizes less than 10% of what general construction sucks up in dimensional lumber (2x4, 2x6, etc.) Which industry has also had grown their forest farms.

A "greener" approach that would have more of an impact would be to choose and feature mouldings embedded with the least petrochemical load... those that are shipped across the Pacific, then railed or trucked to distribution center and redistributed to suppliers and finally the framer.

As David points out about letting the forest grow... we in Oregon have witnessed the net results of 70 years of Forest Service policy of stopping forest fires and growing "natural forests". Just a few years ago just one fire (The Biscuit Fire) burned half a million acres of prime beautiful protected by tree hugger forest. The fire cost $153,000,000 to put out. And because the tree huggers have blocked the timber companies from running in and harvesting the dead timber and planting a diverse forest that would be maturing in 20 years, we will wait 50 years for a semi-maturing forest.

Oregon in 2002 lost 7.2 million acres of forest and cost us $1,000,000,000 to fight. Those of you outside of Oregon helped with 3/4 of that money.

If select forestry was utilized in those 7.2 million acres, it would employ over 5,000 people, produce enough lumber to build 20,000 homes and all the furniture in those homes, the schools needed for the kids that live in those homes, tie-up over 2 billion tons of carbon, and that could be done without a single clear cut patch.

 

[GULFCOASTFRMR]

Wow! Thanks for a the info! I'll need a couple days for me and my boss to go over everything. Thanks so much for all the ideas! Much appreciated. I've learned so much from the Grumble over the past couple years. Thanks to all!