Recycling

We recycle everything we can…this includes our paper, cardboard, hard and soft plastics, cellophane, Styrofoam, metal and glass.

We are proud to say we initiated the coordination of collection of recyclables for others in our area.

We collect:

Plastic bread tabs

Metal ring tops

Large plastic milk bags

Brita filters and batteries

The bread tabs go to St James United, the ring tops to a primary school fundraiser, the milk bags are woven into sleep mats, and the batteries and Brita filters are recycled.

Composting

We are proud to say the City of Peterborough collects green waste from flowers shops all year round. It creates the best compost.

We are happy to be part of the City of Peterborough food waste pick up. Our staff enjoy their meals so there usually is very little waste.

Coordinated deliveries

We use our own delivery vehicles as well as a local courier company. We co-ordinate and route our deliveries for efficiency with time and fuel. This reduces mileage and fuel consumption, emissions, and the cost of delivery. We purchase carbon credits to help offset the floral industry’s dependence on air, and land transportation.

Environmental Packaging Re-use

 We offer our in-store customers two choices when wrapping their floral bouquets. The first, we respect their request for no wrappers  The second is our eco-friendly packaging option, using unbleached recycled paper and twine. The environmental impact is less than with our traditional wrap.Other initiatives to reduce re-use and recycle…. We only use plant sleeves when protection from the weather is a must, and they too are made from recycled paper.  We only print what we must, and we print on both sides of the paper.

We return all cardboard boxes to the original suppliers.

Re-use: We send all packaging material, styrofoam or corn starch peanuts to a local shipping company, we return grower pots to the greenhouses we shop with. We purchase vases made of recycled glass and encourage our customers to return gently used vases to us. When the weather is above freezing, we empty water from our used  stock buckets in the garden beside our shop.

Fair Trade Farmers

We are very proud of the relationships we have built with the members of Pickontario. The floral product they supply to us is top notch and we thank you for the compliments we recive from our customers.  When we do shop internationally we use only trusted suppliers.  We know they source out growers who have been inspected to ensure they are using fair labor practices and are following regulations regarding the safe use of pesticides.

What about pesticides?  

Canadian regulations regarding the safe use of pesticides are much more stringent than in many other countries.  More and more, our local growers are using natural predators to control unwanted pests, and growers are inspected frequently to ensure they are following legislation.    Sometimes now, we do find pests on some of our flowers….but we are more relaxed about this than we used to be. A few pests are preferable to toxic chemicals. Fewer pesticides – another great reason to buy local whenever we can!

Organic Flowers?

Pesticide use is on a rapid decline, and we do see some small local farmers growing organic field flowers; however, we are not yet seeing “organic” crops from the big commercial growers.  This is partly because they grow hydroponically, inspiring the use of chemical fertilizers, and partly because they are growing ornamental crops – they need to look good, and, of course, they will not be eaten.  There is more work to be done here and much will depend on public demand.

Our Building

We are working toward a zero waste building. We make use of our many windows and doors to circulate air to reduce the need for heating and cooling. Electricity is our fuel of choice.