Reduce, Reuse, Recycle...Green article No. 1

So we recently went through a renovation at work & boxes upon boxes of fabric hang sets, etc were put into a showroom used for storage. A coworker was going to take all of it to donate, but backed out. I ended up taking a bunch into nearby schools, but they can't use all of it. It was going to be thrown away unless something was worked out.

*Yes, thrown away - all of it. Ponder on this: take all of the design firms around the world x's all of the fabric, wallpaper, & carpet samples (see pic's here of a portion of our small library at the office). Okay...very few companies offer to recycle these samples & even fewer reps will ever pick up the items. Literally, we have one rep that asks about picking up carpet samples that we don't need anymore. Thousands & thousands of dollars go into making all of these samples/books & the vast majority of them end up in the trash.

Okay, so while I'm not always the "greenest" person out there by far, the huge amount of waste was hard to swallow--especially when paired with a crafty personality. Random note: if you don't own re-usable shopping bags...what's wrong with you?! You can fit a few plastic bags' worth in one & they're much more confortable to carry.

♥11/22/09 UPDATE: How to take apart a fabric sample book? See the demolition at this post!

♥10/17/09 UPDATE: Some of the fabric companies will at least now send mailers to send back memos, but not many.♥

 

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♥10/17/09♥ FYI: No, the fabric does NOT! stay out like that!!! If I'm not working on it, it's out of sight. Although... sunroom (aka studio) may look like a fabric & bead explosion went off on the weekends (but I'm working on it then & that ='s good).

♥10/17/09: Idea...my sunroom is adjacent to the living room, so the bookcase helps to act as a divider between the two spaces. Umm..I hadn't taken off the labels when I took this picture, but the totes help keep various small supplies handy when you don't have enough drawer space. Also..that's fabric folded on the shelves. This is an older picture---I hadn't finished putting the fabric up there but, again, you get the point!

Save the planet, it's the only one with chocolate!

♥-Kat.

PS- For those of you that get this...wallcovering. not wallpaper...my faux pas