An event planner in Florida is "rescuing" leftovers from any event, then recycling, re-distributing and re-purposing them. Saved items run the gamut, from leftover brochettes to beer bottles to boutonnières. Through its new Recovery & Recycling service, ME Productions charges its customers based on the number of attendees, usually about $1 to $2 per guest, according to a release from the Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based event company. The service is available in all major U.S. markets.

ME Production contracts with an environmental hauling company to take flowers to nursing homes and hospitals and haul safe reusable food to homeless shelters. The rest gets composted. Proceeds from recycling empty beverage cans helps buy food for abused and abandoned pets; even corks and bottle caps get re-purposed into jewelry and decorative products. Proceeds from that reborn junk go to buy beverages for children who don't have access to a safe supply of drinking water. Mood-setting candles become emergency kit supplies, as the leftover ones go to families that have lost long-term access to electrical power because of a major storm or natural disaster.

 Try This:

• Offer to compost flowers for your bridal and party clients — and charge for it. Partner with a local recycling company on post-event waste management and share the business.
• Get loud about all your green efforts, whether you're recycling vases or using hybrid delivery vans. ME Productions sent out a press release and gave their green clean-up duties a spiffy new branded name.

Want More? We recycled some stories about recycling florists:

NY Woman Begins Flower Power Foundation

Sustain and Contain: Shop Recycles Vases, Replenishes Planet
 

--Amanda Long
along@safnow.org

   

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