Posts Tagged ‘Composting’


Johnson upper elementary, rain barrels and compost special guest Speaker

Friday, May 18th, 2012

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Recently I got the opportunity to be a special guest speaker at Johnson upper elementary thanks to Julie Thompson, leader of their PTA. One of my favorite things to do is talk to kids about water conservation, reuse, composting etc. The questions they ask are priceless and I also make sure to ask them a lot of questions too. In my day to day I forget sometimes what it was like in middle school. When your attend school dances and feel awkward and actually I “rebeled” as my parents would say, refusing to join any school teams but rather spend all my hours after (and sometimes during) school skateboarding. I still skateboard and it has given me a perspective that I would not otherwise know. When I arrive at the skatepark you have kids of all ages interacting it’s their park. Like it’s their park… This is our earth and we all have to take care of it. If we don’t teach kids the importance of green living then it will surely die. In a throw away society, water that just magically flows out the tap, soil which you buy at a store are winning. It’s time to change that, and change starts with the kids.


Nothing but a Barrel

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

A few years ago, when we set out to get involved in making Rain Barrels and selling other Home and Garden products at Metro-Detroit Green Fairs, we never thought it would turn out so incredibly well. The community involvement with green fairs, charities, school and churches has helped shape our business, continuing over a hundred years of Rubin family involvement in the drum and barrel industry. Now, at Maxi, as the summer comes to a close, so does a chapter of our lives. The Green season is over, there no more events until next Spring/Summer. We all set our sights on the numerous things we have neglected due to the hustle and bustle of the season. We won’t be hibernating this winter, but a part of us will. The Green part.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the events we were involved in (a list is provided at the end of this post). However, certain moments, or days, stand out when looking back from the corner of the autumn and winter seasons. I want to share my favorite “highlights” from this summer with all of you.

Two tents down! Currently, both of our tents need repair. One, we have no idea what happened to, and the other a storm almost swept away! At the St. Clair Shores Green Fair in the Park it was a beautiful day until warnings of a oncoming storm started to spread across the fair (since the Dream Cruise was happening on Woodward Ave. simultaneously, we just checked their twitter feed) Even though the vendors and patrons were advised to leave a little early in hopes of missing the brunt of the storm, we were among the last out of there, and our tent nearly didn’t make it out at all. I went to grab the truck for our final load of Rain Barrels, and when I arrived to our location I find my father (Richard) holding onto a tent that was in shambles. He looked like he was holding onto it for dear life, in high winds and heavy rain. This was a very intense end to a great event.

HOT, HOT, HOT! All of you remember that heat wave in June? Well we can’t forget it. We had three events planned almost simultaneously for that weekend of heat. Friday I spent in Armada while the rest of the Maxi staff was at the Ferndale Live Green Fair. I guess this is one time I lucked out, since at the Lavender Festival in Armada we had a location in the shade and the fair was on grass, not pavement. The staff at the Live Green Fair said it was sweltering hot as the intense sun reflected up from the ground. Also, the way the booths were set up didn’t allow a lot of airflow. On Sunday, I made my way to Ferndale, my father and I did the best we could, but I was definitely suffering during tear down, and was afraid I was going to pass out. My Dad had to stick me in the car with the AC on to get me to stop acting loopy. I am pretty sure I was a second away from heat stroke.

We enjoyed all of the events this year, these two weekends were exceptionally interesting, check out the list below for all of our events this year, and watch out for even more next year! Hope to see you next summer at some of our Green Events!

I tried to remember them all and hopefully, got them all of them here. Click on each to learn more. This list doesn’t include all of the Rain Barrel workshops we have done, just a few of them.

If you know of an event in Metro-Detroit (really anywhere in Michigan) that you would like us to bring our sustainable living setup including Rain Barrels, Composting, and Container Gardening, please let us know. Drop me an email at joshua@maxicontianer.com with the details.

Enjoy this slideshow of photos from our “Green Fairs” Collection of photoset’s on Flickr!

[slickr-flickr tag=”GreenFairs” type=”slideshow” captions=”on” delay=”3″]


GreeningDetroit.com and Maxi Team Up for Green School Awards

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Michigan Green School Badge

This past May 25th Joshua Rubin from Maxi Container met up with GreeningDetroit.com at the Green School Awards in Pontiac, MI. Maxi has been a member of their online community for about a year now and have met many people through there green network. We often see each other at green events throughout the spring/summer season. That is how this collaboration came about, at the Plymouth Green Street Fair we decided to work together and donate a compost tumbler to the Michigan Green Schools at there upcoming award ceremony.

Maxi believes that education is key if you want to make a positive change for the future. (see our articles about recycling in the classroom and Michigan’s Green Schools.) This was our chance to get directly involved and meet representatives from different Michigan Green Schools. We delivered a fully assembled Compost Tumbler with custom spray painting of GreeningDetroit.com and Maxi’s Logos (plus a flat black finish on the wood frame to boot). The donation of the composter was announced during the ceremony and schools were asked to sign up for it if interested. It would be raffled of a lucky school and then handed around to others. Hopefully the schools will need more composters soon! Maxi loves to be involved with our local schools, helping students to learn about the many benefits of composting.

Check out the Facebook photo album here.


Why Waste Yard Waste? – Proposed Bill is Bad for Michigan

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

DIY Compost Tumbler Kit

The Michigan House Committee on Energy & Technology is looking into two bills in committee on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 9am.  HB 4265 and HB 4266 seek to return yard waste to landfills for minor energy production purposes. Both bills are sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Horn, sponsor and Rep. Paul Opsommer, co-sponsor. These Bills are a  bad idea on many levels.

Michigan banned Yard Waste going to landfills in 1995. As a home owner, the impact of this ban was negligible. Instead of putting my yard waste out with my trash, I had to put it in low cost compostable paper bags availble at most hardware stores, supermarkets and big box stores in my area.  In my town of Farmington Hills, MI the yard waste is collected by  The Recycling Authority, and  is taken to a large-scale compost site where it decomposes and becomes a rich, black humus. According to The Recycling Authority, each year RRRASOC residents generate 80,000 tons of waste. At least 30% of that waste can be composted.

Another good use for yard waste is composting at home. Composting at home reduces our dependence on trucks to haul yard waste to large-scale compost sites. It also provides us with our own source of rich humus to reuse in our gardens. Composting at home reduces the use of expensive petrochemically based fertilizers which find their way into our sewers, lakes and streams. It is less costly to produce than buying fertilizers, mulch or hummus at the local garden center. Also, composting at home is inexpensive and easy and creates a sense of connectedness with our natural world.

Here at Maxi Container we are so excited about the benefits of composting at home that we created our DIY Compost Tumbler Kit.  We re-purposed a food grade plastic drum and provide all the parts and information necessary to begin composting at home.

The Michigan Recycling Coalition (of which Maxi is a proud member) is actively opposing these bills.  If you live in the great State of Michigan, please call or write your representative and let them know how strongly you oppose these Bills. If you can, attend the next hearing on these Bills on March 1st at 9am, 519 House Office Building, Lansing, MI. Yard Waste can be a valued resource for the home owner.  You should not be charged to give it away for free and bury it in a landfill.


Ohio Makes Composting Easier for Schools

Monday, February 14th, 2011

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) has drafted a new Administrative Code chapter (3745-560) now making it easier to compost. The new regulations include an exclusion from the need to obtain an annual solid waste license. Before, compost facilities have to establish financial assurance but no more, with these changes you can basically DIY and make you own compost facility. Registration and operational requirements would still apply.

You can download the official News Release from the OEPA by clicking here.

Works Cited: Waste and Recycling News, Jan. 24 2011 – Amanda Smith Teutsch