Green Options

Michigan based Meijer and ecostoreusa have joined forces to create five ecostore brand natural cleaning products that will be sold exclusively at Meijer stores.

Meijer operates 185 stores in five states with their corporate offices in Grand Rapids, MI. Ecostore USA has it’s US office in West Bloomfield, MI. The pairing is a perfect match as Meijer continues to expand the amount of organic, natural and eco-friendly products that they offer and ecostore USA creates some of the best natural cleaning, home, pet and beauty products available.

There are not a lot of “green” businesses in Flint. Absolutely none listed in Co-op America’s National Green Pages or in any other database of green businesses that I’ve found. Earlier this year there was a green business event for Flint and Genesee county area businesses…maybe five companies were there: CBC Recycling, Office Max (I think), a mobile document shredding company and I don’t remember who else, if anyone.

For years it has been very hard to be green in Vehicle Rust City. Some outer suburbs have curbside recycling but I have to haul mine directly to the recycling center. If I wanted to buy green, any specialty items like cleaning supplies, organic cosmetics, clothing or anything else that I want had to be ordered through catalogs or online (I am sooo thankful for the Internet). Organic food also had to be special ordered or searched for (sometimes to no avail) at the Farmer’s Market.

While grocery shopping during a recent trip to Tennessee I realized how much I missed my “local” products. I also realized that shopping local is a very green choice. When you hear shop local you may just think about locally grown and seasonal produce (which is mainly what I associated with buying local) but it’s also about supporting local businesses, companies, and brands which all support the local economy.

There are several brands that mean home to me: Koegel, Vernors, and Faygo. Koegel is a meat company that’s been in Flint since the early 1900’s , and if you’ve never had a Koegel hot dog you don’t know what your missing. My husband wouldn’t touch a hot dog until he moved to Michigan and I convinced him to try a Koegel. Now he’ll gladly eat hot dogs, as long as they are Koegels and only Koegels.