Thursday Feature - A Brief Word About "Green" Suppliers

I ordered a number of Beadalon products from Create for Less the other day - they arrived in yesterday's mail. Two things of note, #1, they reuse boxes - mine had a crossed out label for magnetic tape and was definitely not a new box, although perfectly fine and sturdy. #2, the box was barely bigger than the product ordered. What room left over was filled out for shipping with an airpouch made of recycled film ("Earth Aware" from airpouch.com).

I think both of those things are great and it increases my appreciation of Create for Less as a supplier.

I've noted a few other environmentally good practices with a few of my suppliers, too, as I've read their site information:

• Rings & Things won an award from the mayor of their city for green commuting and they practice a number of environmentally conscious things at their facility
  
• Soft Flex Company was the first wire manufacturing company to go green. They've also got a number of eco-friendly hints on the page found at the link above.
  
• Beadalon discusses it's eco-friendly facility and recycling on their site

If you're a supplier of beads, wire, tools or other related materials, or know a link to one's story about going green, please send me an email or leave me a link in the comments and I'll be sure to mention you/them in a future post.

Also, so many of the beaders and other jewelry artists re-use, upscale and re-purpose things in their work - I'd be thrilled to mention all of them, just leave me a link in the comments to your own favorite example of your work, or someone else's, and I'll write up a special post about it. Please also let me know if I can use any photos of the work you mention. If you want to pass along any hints or tips for being a more environmentally aware jewelry artist, feel free leave those too!