How Green are Maplewood Businesses?

Whether for environmental purposes or profit gains, businesses across several platforms are going green in Maplewood. Many use typical green products, such as energy-efficient light bulbs and napkins made of post-consumer recycled materials. Others are making more serious strides to reduce their carbon footprint.

For a handful, it is virtually effortless, and even lucrative, to be eco-friendly. The Hilton Branch Library is recycling in its most basic form. Adding more green to local lawns keeps Maplewood's Z.O. Landscaping Supply in business. 

Yet many have to work a bit to comply with green business practices.

At Fringe Salon, owner Kim Hammer is dedicated to helping customers recycle. The salon participates in bottle-cap and gift card recycling programs. In December, Patch reported that "If you bring your plastic caps into Fringe, they will be repurposed into new Aveda packaging and 'kept from entering our waterways and harming wildlife' according to the Fringe website."

Arturo's Osteria and Pizzeria is the first pizzeria in the nation to use Greenbox pizza boxes for take-out orders. The box is made of 100% recycled materials and has a perforated top that breaks into four plates. The remainder of the box serves as a storage container.

"It's a great product and it's the right thing to do." Arturo's owner Dan Richer said in February, "It's cool to be on the front line."

Many of the green businesses say it makes sense because it helps the environment while adding to their profits, or saving their customers money.

Z.O. Landscaping Supply in Maplewood uses several kinds of organic fertilizers; encourages customers to select locally-grown plants, trees and shrubs; and uses organic top-soil (from compost) in all planting and seeding projects.

"I would say 90-percent of our work is planting," co-owner Mark Vinckgraf says. "By promoting people to green up their yards, we promote our business." 

"Greening-up" with plants indigenous to the area means the plants will last longer, and cuts down on energy expenditures due to international shipping. Vinckgraf and his cousin, Ed Vinckgraf, have been using organic products for nearly a decade. 

Peggy Excel-Stone of Lotus Petals says she has been recycling all cardboard and plastic since before the township mandated it. "Our planting materials are not bagged, they're left in empty trash-bins so that they will compost and become sustainable rather than stting in a plastic bag and non degrading. They will go back to the soil from whence they came," Excel-Stone says.

In the store, she uses natural, sustainable, reusable glass, clay, and terracotta containers and "not things that will end up in a land-fill" whenever possible.

"It is not always avoidable because the flower industry has not quite caught up to other industries in terms of sustainability, but we do everything we can because obviously it's important to us here," she added.

As Maplewood Village Alliance Manager Julie Doran explains, "Maplewood is known for being on of the greenest communities in the state of NJ, and the Village Alliance is working to support Village businesses in their environmentally friendly practices. One such effort is instituting a Green Business Award to honor the businesses that implement new and creative environmentally friendly practices." The award should be rolled out in early 2011.

Over in South Orange, the thinking is also getting greener. Clarke McCarthy, owner of Other Mothers in South Orange, says, "We are not only being green, but our customers are saving green. You can save thousands of dollars." She says the items filling the 4,000-square-foot store would all otherwise have "ended up in a landfill."

George Berkeley, owner of The UPS Store in South Orange, works hard to keep harmful products out of landfills and, therefore, the eco-system. He collects and recycles everything from batteries and light bulbs to eyeglasses.

"After riding around in a submarine for 12 years in the Navy," on 90-day tours, "you recycle everything," Berkeley says. The Navy veteran, 60, adds that, "being close to the ocean all my life, you become very aware of what we do to this planet."

Berkeley is a registered handler of hazardous materials, the only UPS Store owner in the region to hold the license. As such, he collects and properly recycles batteries and CFL light-bulbs. Customers from Maplewood are welcome to bring in these items.

"These bulbs are a disaster waiting to happen," he says, "I started collecting them because I can ship them to a facility that will remove the mercury from the light-bulbs, so that it does not end up in the eco-system." Home Depot is the only other place Berkeley knows of that recycles the CFL bulbs.

Berkeley's wife, Jennifer, is the owner of The Beaded Path, a store which recently moved from Maplewood to South Orange. During the move from Maplewood, the Berkeleys packed everything in recycled boxes, which were then recycled again once the store was settled in South Orange. The UPS Store also has recycling arrangements with Kitchen a la Mode and Dunkin Donuts. Any clean boxes that have no touched food are given to Berkeley, who sells them in the store. Customers who use recycled boxes receive a discount on shipping.

"It's more than recycling," Kitchen a la Mode owner Ben Salmon says, "it getting rid of another box altogether. It's good for me, good for him, and good for the environment."

Many local stores use energy-efficient lights. At least two in South Orange are looking to take this a step further: Eden Gourmet and Gallery 61 are investigating the possibility of using solar panels. 

"This green initiative is great for the environment and save us dollars at the end of the day as well, it's a win-win," says spokeswoman Lia Malatesta.

There is room for improvement among local restaurants. In calls to more than a dozen local restaurants, randomly chosen from the Patch directory, none make an effort to compost.

Whether considering alternative forms of energy or helping customers recycle, it is clear that several local businesses stand out in terms of going green. There is no way of measuring just how environmentally sufficient each store is, but with increased education the businesses in South Orange and Maplewood can continue to reduce the area's carbon footprint, an effort many residents appreciate. 

"Our customers come in looking for compost bins and rain barrels to preserve water," Mike Vinckgraf says. "People are getting more and more conscious."