Posts Tagged ‘Sierra Club’


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″]


Who said being green is easy – Walkin’ the Walk

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Here at Maxi Container we have many sayings, some are left over from our founder, Max Rubin. Not all are polite or politically correct, but are distillations of business wisdom passed from generation to generation of the Rubin family. The saying that we use the most is our slogan and core value MAXI means the MOST in SERVICE and QUALITY. We use this as a shorthand for our commitment to customer service before and after each sale. Another one of our core values is being committed to reuse and recycling. Many of the containers we sell are reconditioned. They have been previously used for the transport of various industrial products, collected, cleaned in an environmentally sustainable manner, and then re-certified for reuse. For the past few years we have been up-cycling (re-purposing) food-grade containers as rain barrels and compost tumblers.  We have attended numerous green fairs, worked closely with schools and community-based organizations such as the Sierra Club, to promote the use of rain barrels, composting, reuse and recycling.

This leads us to another one of our sayings and core values. Today it simply is not enough to “talk-the-talk” about green products, or your commitment to reuse and recycling. You have to literally “walk-the-walk” to prove to your commitment to the public. Here at Maxi, we pride ourselves on actually following through and “walkin’ the walk”.  Our products are often reused or reconditioned, we recycle our office paper and run our trucks on bio-diesel.  This past weekend we took our commitment to being green one step farther, farther then we ever have in the past.  Maxi was involved in three community events this past weekend, simultaneously!  Most of this came about due to the hard work of our Creative Director, Joshua Rubin.  This past weekend we were exhibitors at both the Lavender Festival in Armada, MI and the Live Green Fair in Ferndale, MI. We also worked with the Salem United Church of Christ in Farmington, MI to hold a rain barrel workshop were people could learn how to build their own rain barrel. Joshua was the principal speaker and trainer at both Armada and Farmington. He then worked with me in Ferndale on Sunday, in 90+ degree heat.

The result was a wonderful weekend where over 120 rain barrels found new homes.  I am very proud of my son Joshua Rubin for his commitment to our core beliefs of reducing our impact on the environment by “Walkin the Walk” and being GREEN.


Local Motion Earth Day Fair – Grosse Pointe Farms

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

Having a great time at Local Motion’s Earth Day Fair! Lots of cool green vendors and awesome people celebrating earth month. Shout out to the Sierra Club, Greening Detroit, and The Greening of Detroit as well. GREEN EVERYTHING!Green Fair Talking to People


Sierra Club Rain Barrel Workshop – Detroit, MI (Brightmoor) 4/9/11

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Rain Barrel Workshop - Sign Up
Last weekend the Sierra Club Great Lakes Program hosted a Rain Barrel workshop on Detroit’s west-side in the Brightmoor neighborhood. The workshop was organized by the Sierra Club’s own Melissa Damaschke to teach fifty Detroiters, who had signed up for the event, all about water conservation’s benefits, and of course how to make a rain barrel. After all of the participants arrived, Melissa explained the workshop and then separated everyone into groups. An experienced Rain Barrel “Guru” led each group in the making of the Barrels. After all the drilling, caulking, and installing was done, the group discussed their plans to save rain water and for use in their gardens. It was an educational experience and fun afternoon project.

I had my video camera on me and have created a video showcasing the workshop, hope you enjoy!

For More Info on the Sierra Club Great Lakes Program please visit these links:

The Michigan Citizen wrote an article about the event, download it here.


Sierra Club Rain Barrel Workshop – Riverbend Community Association

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Maxi Container has begun working with the Sierra Club Great Lakes program to help reduce storm water runoff, and teach Detroiters about rainwater conservation. We exaplined how it is useful for your garden and your pocketbook! Melissa Damaschke visited our office a month ago to work out an arrangement where Maxi would help supply the Sierra Club Great Lakes workshops and other events with Rain Barrels. The Sierra Club Great Lakes also partnered with one of our favorite Customers, The Greening of Detroit. The Greening are long time activists in Detroit and have been at the heart of Detroit’s urban gardening movement. Their goal is to improve the quality of life in Detroit by guiding and inspiring the reforestation of Detroit’s neighborhoods. They help by educating and empowering citizens, teaching them lessons like the advantages of growing their own vegetables, rain barrels, and composting.

On Thursday March 24 at 6:30 PM at the Riverbend Community Association, Kido Pielack, from the Greening of Detroit, was there to lead the workshop. Prepared to show the attendees how to make their own rain barrels from start to finish. After he went through the complete process, the floor was opened up for questions. The crowd had many questions varying from how to use the rain barrels, the advantages of using them, and how to prevent mosquitoes. To complete the evening the Sierra Club raffled of three of our Terra Cotta Rain Barrels. Some happy attendees went home ready for spring with their new rain barrels. Also one barrel was donated to the church, which is starting a garden as well this spring. Thank you Kido and The Greening of Detroit.

Please Check out the Sierra Club Great Lakes Program Blog.

Here are some photos from the event. Enjoy!

Rain Barrel Workshop - Riverbend Community Association

Sierra Club Great Lakes Program, Greening of Detroit and Maxi Container collaborate on a Rain Barrel Workshop at the Riverbend Community Association in Detroit.

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Check out what @SC_Great_Lakes…

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Check out what @SC_Great_Lakes is up too…this month #RainBarrel workshop…check out their blog for upcoming events: http://t.co/13dmhKT