Receiving a Green Trophy in March?

It looks like Celerystreet.com is getting noticed again…or at least half of the founders have been noticed. That would be me, “e”.

I am a finalist in the Indiana Green Business Awards in the category of “Enterprising Woman of the Year”. This would be someone who juggles a home, family, community involvement, and has started a successful green, sustainable, and eco-friendly business.

I get to meet Sara Snow, the author and TV host of Discovery Network’s "Get Fresh with Sara Snow”! And if I win or am the runner-up, will I get a recycled trophy? Picture a previously championed baseball league trophy with someone else’s name on it…like Jimmy Jones, 1985 Centerfield Regional Championship. That trophy will have a beautiful sash of recycled fabric that says "IGBA, Enterprising Woman of the Year, 2010." I think that would be pretty green and comical too! Actually, I have no idea what the winner receives - the title alone is plenty and I just know it is going to be a great evening.

I am really looking forward to meeting all these amazing finalists and hearing about their “green projects” in categories like sustainable transport, natural habitats and wildlife, sustainable water…14 all together. It will be a very enlightening awards ceremony gala dinner on March 24th.

Oh, and if you haven’t noticed we have been featured on quite a few blogs lately. I discovered a new website/blog, http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/2010/02/27/eco-deal-of-the-day-celery-street/, that has loads of green info...I really like all the green fashion videos! Visit the site and read the Celery Street review they featured some of our great eco friendly products.

- e

A Word or Two on Paperboard

My good friend Gigi just accomplished a very green beautiful thing. Our little community will now have a paperboard recycling bin behind city hall. The closest drop off available to us before this momentous green Gigi moment was downtown Indianapolis…about 10 miles away... very difficult to travel with paperboard boxes tied to your back while peddling your bicycle. Personally I just drive my fuel burning automobile downtown to deliver the paperboard…also a very difficult thing to do, difficult on my conscience anyway.

So what is paperboard? Paperboard is flat, not corrugated like cardboard. We are talking about cereal boxes, granola bar boxes, 6 pack beverage cartons, etc. Not the waxy finished products like milk cartons.

Over 57% of Americans have easy access to paperboard recycling, up from 46% in 2000. Additionally, the number of communities collecting paperboard for recycling increased to 41% in 2005. Paperboard is circling back around.

Paperboard is rather green since it is 100% recyclable. The extended list of brands using recycled paperboard is as obvious as Tom’s of Maine all the way to giants aka Xerox Corporation. See www.rpa100.com.

Better than plastic? Paperboard Materials are made of sustainable materials using specially-raised crop trees, waste products like sawdust and wood chips, and recycled paper/paperboard fibers. Sustainable wood fibers from farm-raised trees are the primary raw material in paperboard packaging. The forest products industry plants 1.7 million trees a day – which exceeds the number of trees harvested.

I have to mention the reuse factor of paperboard too…those school projects…the mock up cereal box villages with double-decker buses created out of animal cracker cartons and Creamette Thin Spaghetti smoke stacks.

When will a generation of children consider the smoke stack a relic synonymous to a phone booth? I don’t have the answer to that question…yet.