We are extremely busy this time of year, between all the green fairs and festivals, plus our workshops. Many weekends are surrendered to the cause of green living, reducing ones carbon footprint by installing a rain barrel.
After visiting California recently I started to realize that based on climate and water usage you may not need a rain barrel. Then I thought, well what would it hurt to have one anyone. And all I could come up with is that it couldn’t. There is almost no reason in my mind as to why you wouldn’t benefit from saving even just one barrel of water when you can save up enough rain. Then this all got me thinking about the many various uses for the extra water. Contrary to the many skeptics, rain barrels can be useful no matter who you are. The water can be used for many different uses, some of them are:
Washing your car
Washing your hair
Watering House Plants
Watering Outdoor Plants / Flowers
Watering your lawn (using a Rain Barrel Pump)
Reduce Stormwater Runoff
Promote Rain Gardens and/or Ponds
Washing the dog?
Let us know what you use your rain barrel for, leave us a comment below or Tweet us @MaxiContainer
***Under no circumstances do we recommend drinking rain water from your rain barrel. You don’t know whats on your roof… but Water Treatment tabs are handy to have and cheap… here’s a few on Amazon.com – keep them around in case of emergency, to turn your rain water into a drinkable source of water.
It is funny how things work. You always hear the saying that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Or, in the environmental field that “one person can make a difference”. We nod our heads agreeing, but then we go on like before.
Here at Maxi Container and our sister site, mirainbarrel, we have decided that we are going to make a difference, one rain barrel at a time. There are so many reason why using a rain barrel to harvest rain water makes sense. The water is better for your garden, you help reduce pollution and storm water run off, you save money, etc.
But one thing leads to another. Last month we hosted the first Rain Barrels on the River Front with the Sierra Club Great Lakes Program and the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. One of the attendees was Claire M. Galed. As it happens Claire is the Manager of the Huntington Woods, MI Department of Public Works. She contacted us and now, Maxi is teaming up with Huntington Woods to sponsor a rain barrel workshop for all Huntington Woods residents on July 22, 2012.
We are very excited to be working with Claire and Huntington Woods. Clearly, here is one person who is making a difference.
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.
Boy, have we been busy. Rain Barrel Season started early and the response has been overwhelming. On April 14, 2012 we partnered with the Sierra Club Great Lakes Program and the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy to host Rain Barrels on the Riverfront. Over 100 participants used Maxi Container’s Rain Barrel Kits to build their own Rain Barrels.
A week later, April 21 and 22, we were at the Grosse Pointe Live Green Fair, were our own Joshua Rubin was interviewed on Fox 2 News about our rain barrels. After the interview, people were waiting at our booth to purchase our repurposed rain barrels.
Upcoming events include, Chelsea Live Green Fair, May 19 and 20, Rochester Green Living Festival, June 22, 23, and 24, Wyandotte Green Live Fair, July 11, 12, 13, and 14, The Lavender Festival, July 13, 14 and 15 and the Farmington Founders Festival July 20 and 21, 2012.
April 28, 2012 found us at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Livonia hosting a Rain Barrel workshop. Part of the proceeds were used to benefit St. Paul’s community outreach garden initiative to “Feed the Hungry.” Over 20 people participated and went home with their Rain Barrel helping to raise money for their community garden and to help protect the Great lakes by reducing pollution caused by Storm Water run-off.
Rick talks to the attendees at St. Paul's Rain Barrel Workshop!
May 4, 5, and 6th found us at the Plymouth Green Street Fair. This is usually one of the better green events and this year’s did not disappoint. After gloomy weather on Friday, Saturday and Sunday were bright and sunny, bringing thousand of people to Downtown Plymouth. In the past two years, we sold out of rain barrels at the Plymouth Green Street Fair, so we made sure to have extras. Interestingly, while we sold more rain barrels then in years past, it was our compost tumbler that sold out. Another big hit was our rain barrel stands made from wood reclaimed from used wooden pallets. We also introduced RainSaucers and our up-cycled steel drum benches.
We had a wonderful time at all of these events interacting with people interested in rain water harvesting and protecting our environment. If you have an event our are interested in setting up a fundraiser for your non-profit group, feel fee to give us a call at 1-800-727-MAXI or contact me at rick@maxicontainer.com.
Our setup at Grosse Pointe Live Green Home Show
I had a great time on my birthday at the Plymouth Green Street Fair
If you have not already noticed our involvement in the Great Lakes program hosted by the Sierra Club (America’s oldest grassroots organization). We have partnered again for a kick-off spring event on the Detroit Riverfront. This is a three-way collaboration between the Sierra Club, The Detroit RiverFront Conservancy and Maxi Container, Inc. This event is free to the public to watch learn and listen as we build barrels and show how to attach them to a downspout on your home. You can also pickup a barrel for $60 or per-register to receive the discount and build your barrel with us! (visit: http://mirainbarrel.com/signup and click on “Rain Barrels on the Riverfront” to sign up now!) This event is going to be a fun Saturday morning (April, 14th) … bring the whole family!
For more info please call 313-444-3705 or visit http://mirainbarrel.com
We kindly urge you to share this event with your friends and colleagues!
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Detroit City Councilman Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. and U.S. Representative Clarke plan to attend and give remarks at the beginning of the workshop/sale.
Last month, on April 25th, Project Grow and Maxi Container partnered for a very successful Rain Barrel workshop. Project Grow is a nonprofit community garden in Ann Arbor. Joshua (Me) and Lucas (PG) planned the workshop during February. We had such a tremendous response that we needed a bigger room! I arrived to meet Lucas and a couple of happy to help volunteers. After unloading the barrels, people started to show up. I was amazed at the demographic, we had family’s with little ones and senior citizens, plus tons of young adults eager to build a rain barrel and Go Green! (Oops, I guess Go Blue! is more appropriate in A2.)
After the check-in and setup I demonstrated how to build a barrel and did a little lecture and opened the floor for questions. I really was amazed at how prepared the attendees were, full of good and important questions and eager to build. Quickly wrapped up the introduction session and broke out into small groups to build.
The building process went smoothly, as the entire workshop did and most importantly…
41 Rain Barrels found new homes.
If you don’t know about our Maxi Rain Barrel, they are previously used food grade barrels that otherwise don’t have much use… either slated to be land filled or turned into regrind (recycled) which used up fossil fuels. Turning these “pickle” barrels into Rain Barrels truly reduces your carbon footprint while extended the plastic barrels life cycle, help preserving our Great Lakes at the same time. Truly there is no better way (and simple) way to go green then installing a rain barrel.
Please check out all of the photos from the workshop below in a slideshow, or you can view them here on our Flickr.
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!
This summer has been a busy one for us here at Maxi Container, Inc. Our Rain Barrels, which started as a tiny side-project for us, have turned into an entire Home & Garden product line. This line now includes Rain Barrels, Compost Tumblers, Compost Tea Kits and our newest product…(drum roll please) container gardening! We are currently testing out various container gardening designs for our pails and barrels. Expect to see them soon on our website. You may have already seen some of our container gardening items at one of the many Green Events we have been at this year. If you haven’t already please check out our Flickr “Container Gardening” photo set here.
At Maxi, our passion does not end with our workday. We have a love for being involved in our community. To that end, we work with schools, churches and other non-profits such as the Sierra Club Great Lakes Program to help spread the word about water conservation, composting and reuse.
From rain barrels to rain gardens, from composting basics to compost tea, we are involved in every step of our products design and manufacture. (Technically speaking, its re-manufacture, since our Home & Garden products are made from used food grade containers). Nothing goes unnoticed and if anyone has a question or complaint (no matter how small), we make sure to take care of it. That’s what you get when you choose MAXI.
Now, with that all being said, as one of my favorite frogs once said, “It ain’t easy being GREEN.” Our Home & Garden line has turned into a full-time job. Our Twitter is full of eco-friendly tweeters and gardeners. Sometimes we participate in green fairs and community events two to three weekends in a row. When you add in the time it takes to get ready for these events, you can see how hard we are working to promote our core concepts of sustainability, reuse and conservation. Why do we do it? Just take a look at this past month of July…
We arranged to be involved in three different events one weekend and had another event the next weekend. Within nine days, we had four events. If you asked me last year at this time if we would be at that many events, I would of simply answered “not possible”. Now my attitude is different and the sky is the limit.
The first event was the Ferndale Live Green Fair. While in its second year, it is still in its infancy. Last year the Live Green Fair was part of the Funky Ferndale Art Fair and it had only eight or so vendors. However, it was a great success. This year it became a standalone with over 80 GREEN vendors. The event was beautiful, with fun for all ages. The only downside was the heat. This past July turned out to be one of the hottest on record for metro Detroit, and the Live Green Fair happened to be smack dab in the middle of one of our biggest heat waves. I applaud any of the people who made it out to the Ferndale Live Green Fair. We thank you for braving the high temperatures! This green fair is by far the truest green event (the creators are extremely green guys!) and it has a lot of potential. Let’s just hope that next year there is better weather!
Our second event was the Lavender Festival in Armada, MI, hosted at Blake’s Cider Mill. Though not a “Green” fair per say, the event had many green vendors, organics for your garden, artwork made from reused materials and of course, lots and lots of lavender! There was also an education tent that had a workshop every hour. I taught a workshop on Friday that was very successful and had a great time interacting with interested gardeners. We had a great time here and hope to come back again! Thank you to Jennifer Vasich, who created the event and who asked us to be a part of it for the first time.
Our third event of the weekend was part of Farmington’s Founders Festival. We had a very successful workshop with the Salem United Church of Christ in Downtown Farmington. Read the full article here.
The next weekend, we took part in Birmingham’s Green Breeze on the streets of Old Woodward. Richard Rubin (my father) and I set out to see what all of the local Birmingham residents were up to. The turnout for this event hasn’t been as great as we would like, but the people we meet at it seem to be committed to the same values as we are at Maxi. I had some great conversations, met some really exciting and cool new people, and sold a few rain barrels. We also saw many familiar faces. Overall, it was a good weekend and a relaxing final show for our busy two weeks.
Why have I gone into such great detail to illustrate what we did this summer? Some of you may ask why do these Industrial Packaging guys give up their hard-earned weekends? We do it because here at Maxi we believe in our community and in empowering people through education about reuse and sustainability. Stop and think about it. If more businesses operated like Maxi, wouldn’t the world be a better place? The bottom-line is not always about making a dollar. Sometimes it’s just simply about making an impact.
Hope to see you at one of our upcoming green events… check our Facebook or Follow us on Twitter for up to date news on where we will be!
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 valueMAXI 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.
On Saturday, July 16 around 10AM, there was activity starting to take place in the parking lot outside of Salem United Church of Christ in Farmington, MI. The church is located in beautiful, historic downtown Farmington and has been around for over 100 years. Susan Nickels, on behalf of Salem, contacted Maxi Container, and we worked together to prepare a Rain Barrel Workshop to coincide with Farmington’s Founders Festival. Susan organized the activity with the help of her daughter Danielle. We originally started out with a tentative order for 50 barrels. The response was so great that on the day of the workshop, we were expecting over 80 people.
Once people started to gather in the parking lot, it was time to start assembling the rain barrels, to talk with them about water conservation, and how to use their new rain barrels. I came prepared with an assistant, Charlie Ryan, who is a Farmington Hills native. Charlie helped lead the workshop with me. In no time at all, we had a full-blown assembly line in progress. As we were working, more and more people showed up. Many people saw the activity in the church’s parking lot and asked if there were any rain barrels left.
Though we brought ten extra rain barrels, it was not enough. The response was so overwhelming, even the two barrels Maxi donated to the church were sold. Susan and Danielle were ecstatic at the outpouring of attendees for this first time event. Maxi would like to formally thank everyone at the Salem United Church. We would especially like to say thank you to Susan and Danielle Nickels, for making this event happen. From fruition to finish, it went wonderfully and we hope to work with them again.
Don’t worry, we replaced the two donated rain barrels as a thank you for the church hosting the event. We hope to work together in the future on more GREEN events with them.
If you are interested in having Maxi work with your non-profit or organization to help educate people about Rain Barrels and water conservation, please contact Richard via email: rick@maxicontainer.com
Maxi Container kicked of the spring season this year with a busy schedule. We participated in Green Fairs in Grosse Pointe, Plymouth, and Rochester. Community based events like these are a good way for us to meet the public and get feedback on our products, while educating people about water conservation, composting and container gardening. This past year we have redesigned our home and garden products, added new ones, and increased our commitment to green living by getting as heavily involved in these type of events.
Local Motion Green hosted an Earth Day Celebration on April 30. This was the first time Maxi had gone to Grosse Pointe Farms, and the response was tremendous. We had a great time talking to people who were excited about gardening and sustainability. The atmosphere was excellent with live music and events for kids too! Maxi also donated fiber drums to be used as recycling bins at Grosse Pointe Academy. You can read the whole article here.
The next weekend was the PlymouthGreen Street Fair, May 6, 7, 8. Last year this was a great weekend, full of fun and friends. (Joshua and Richard are from nearby Farmington Hills) This year it was nothing less. Maxi was met with huge response on our Rain Barrels. We sold out! It was a fun filled weekend, which included a musical performance from American Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox. They dyed the fountain green and even had a FLASHMOB (public choreographed dance) randomly in the center of downtown. Overall we had a wonderful time in Plymouth. (It helped that our tent was across from the amazing Plymouth Coffee Bean.) To view pictures from the event click here.
Last weekend (May 13, 14, 15) was the Rochester Green Living Festival, which has a strong reputation as being one of the premier green fairs in Metro-Detroit. They provide a rich experience, full of activities, entertainment and green vendors. There is something for everybody. The festival started as an Earth Day Expo and has grown significantly over the past few years. Unfortunately, this year was plagued with bad weather. On and off showers on Saturday detoured some, but we still did well. Sunday was a wash out, too cold for most to want to leave the house, with almost no attendees. Maxi still enjoyed being in Rochester for the first time, meeting all of the eco-conscious people looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and live a more sustainable life. Thank you Rochester and we hope for better weather next year!
Our upcoming events are the Ferndale Live Green Fair July 15-17, which takes place in Downtown Ferndale (9 mile and Woodward Ave.). The same weekend, on Saturday July 16, our very own Joshua Rubin will be in Armada, MI at the Lavender Festival, giving a Rain Barrel workshop/class. Maxi will also be at Birmingham’s Green Breeze on July 23, on Old Woodward between Maple and Brown Street. Please come out and join us at these GREEN events!
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:
