Last year, when we were packing for Hawaii, I repurposed a button holder to accommodate one of my few Eco Cajun branded stickers, and toted it throughout our vacation. It worked well for the most part, although the button holder came undone a few times, causing me to almost lose the sticker. Y'all know I could not bear the thought of creating any litter!
Earlier this year, I contemplated other ideas besides stickers to print my logo on. Iron-on patches weren't cost-effective at all, so I looked at having real buttons made. In keeping with my own brand and my personal style goals of shopping sustainably, I looked for a company that has eco-friendly values.
It was actually fairly easy to find Busy Beaver Button Co., a Chicago-based company that's committed to sustainability in materials and production, through a web search. Plus, I'm a sucker for a company with creative branding, and Busy Beaver has retro charm everywhere!
Nearly all of our suppliers are located within an 100 mile radius of our Chicago location-- our metal parts are made with recycled steel from Gary, Indiana and tin plated on Chicago's south side. We print on 100% recycled paper, and create your buttons, magnets, bottle openers and mirrors on solar powered machinery.
Throughout every step of the button-making process, the Beavers work hard to minimize our carbon pawprint while maximizing our renewable materials. Our buttons are printed on a combination of recycled and sustainably reforested papers, and each pinback is manufactured with US-made recycled steel. You can see our commitment to the environment in action at Busy Beaver's headquarters, The Beaver Dam. We've renovated a century-old building in Chicago's Logan Square with eco-friendly insulation, geothermal heating and cooling and reclaimed building materials.
I wasn't looking to print hundreds of buttons or spend a lot of money. The minimum quantity is 50, but the price was very reasonable, a great deal for using eco-friendly materials.
A couple weeks ago, I finally hit the order button, and was so excited to see my little babies arrive in the mail this week. They went into production within an hour or so after I placed the order and approved the PDF proof, and shipped in about a week.
Although they came in a zip lock bag, they were packed in a small box with kraft paper - no foam peanuts anywhere! I saved the zip bag for us to reuse at home, so it's not going to waste.
The buttons look to be very high quality, and I'm super excited to place a few on my backpack and gym bag and share with my friends, family and Eco Cajun supporters!
Busy Beaver also prints custom magnets, and to be honest, I may or may not super glue some magnets to a button or two myself!
My little button project has shown that while sometimes shopping sustainably can be more time-consuming or more expensive than shopping conventionally, other times, it's just as easy and inexpensive! I'm happy that I was able to easily find a company that matches my own goals, and print a button that's eco-friendly, without breaking the bank.
Mission accomplished!
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