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Fetzer Vineyards: Leading The Way With Organic Farming

Fetzer Vineyards, located in Mendocino County, California, has taken risky yet successful steps towards revolutionizing American winemaking by ridding its vineyards of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. This family-owned vineyard, started in 1968 by Barney Fetzer, his wife, Kathleen, and their 11 sons and daughters, began by experimenting with an organically grown fruit and vegetable garden in 1985. The results were impressive.

John Fetzer, chief executive; James, president; and Mary, marketing director, decided to try organic gardening in the vineyards as well. They reasoned that if the winery could raise grapes organically, it would lower costs, protect its workers from exposure to chemicals, prevent water and soil pollution, and answer the public’s growing desire for food and beverages that are free of chemicals.

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Tags: organic farming, organic gardening, organically grown fruit and vegetable garden

The Business Of Recycling Can Turn Into A Business

Irene Conlan, of Scottsdale, Arizona’s CartridgeCare, became interested in recycling laser printer toner cartridges when she had to throw her first one away. She says “pitching that cartridge made me feel like I was throwing away a car because it was out of gas. It not only seemed financially wasteful but, since the plastic cartridge is non-biodegradable and ends up in the trash, environmentally irresponsible as well.”
In the Spring of 1989, Irene Conlan helped create CartridgeCare, a full-service, laser printer support company specializing in recycling toner cartridges. CartridgeCare collects the used cartridges and refurbishes them, then sells them at a considerable discount off the price of new ones. Since starting, it is estimated that the company has saved their customers more than $400,000 by remanufacturing and selling used laser printer cartridges. In addition, her efforts have kept approximately 20 tons of nonbiodegradable plastic out of the Phoenix/Scottsdale area landfills.
What’s in it for CartridgeCare?
A successful new business grossing $600,000 in revenue annually and a reduction in the amount of trash sent to the landfill.

Tags: CartridgeCare, pitching that cartridg, recycling

Baby Food Jars Get New Life At Car Colors Company

Jan Larkin, owner of Car Colors in Omaha, Nebraska, found that recycling baby food jars is the perfect way to save money and eliminate unnecessary waste. She collects the jars from customers, friends and relatives. Then, she fills them with small quantities of auto paint to be used for “touch up” jobs. When customers leave her auto supply shop, they also receive a small supply of matching paint to take care of that inevitable “ding” or dent. Reusing baby jars supplied at no cost eliminates the expense of purchasing other small containers.

Of course, recycling baby food jars are not restricted to baby food jars. The company also saves used paint thinner in recycled 5-gallon cans, removes the paint and reuses the thinner or provides it to companies that can accept a lower grade product. In addition, they reuse corrugated boxes to avoid purchasing packing materials. Jan Larkin estimates that her overall reuse and recycling efforts save her company approximately $5,000 annually.

Tags: recycling baby food jars, reuse and recycling efforts