Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The bottom line drives business practice. Budgets are the homeowner’s bottom line. Both business owners and homeowners strive to be economical. Does that mean doing without, or purchasing solely from China?

Mike Warpenburg, owner of Art Source in Spokane, believes neither businesses nor homeowners need sacrifice quality in their purchases if they rethink current practices and adopt the philosophy of the three R’s : “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”

Warpenburg’s company produces recognition and architectural signage. Recognition signage typically is a plaque, usually designed to honor an institution’s major contributors. Architectural signage ranges from entry features to door numbers. In 2003, Warpenburg received a master craftsman award from the American Institute of Architects for his exemplary signage.

By the nature of his work, Warpenburg is a materials expert. He says, “My clients usually have a good idea of what they want their design to be, but come to me to find out what it’s best to make it from and have me produce it.”

That puts Warpenburg on the front-line of cost-consciousness and has made him environmentally-conscious as well.

“We got really hot on environmental issues about a year and a half ago,” he says. “For instance, because of the amount of energy needed to produce it, aluminum tripled in price. Since we use a lot of aluminum, we needed to economize.”

To reduce their aluminum consumption, Warpenburg’s designers began to “nest” patterns; that is, they laid out designs to get the maximum number per sheet, thus reducing the number of sheets used.

The conservation didn’t stop there. After the designs were cut from aluminum, Warpenburg says the “drop,” or leftover, was taken to a foundry to be melted down, recycled, then cast into lettering for signage, architectural embellishments and plaques.

Warpenburg says Art Source practices reuse in other practical ways, too. He points out that while one might expect to find a lot of scrap, like cardboard, in a shop that’s been in business for 20 years, that isn’t the case at Art Source. Cardboard that comes in as packaging, is reused to package products going out.

“It used to be you were a chump if you shipped products in a used box,” Warpenburg says. “Now commercial people expect it. Paper ecology is just common sense from a cost standpoint.”

Warpenburg thinks it extremely important to conserve trees. One way that can be done, he says, is by reusing lumber we already have. He’s done that by buying up old redwood decking, resurfacing it to look brand new, and making from it plant containers for clients. “Fifteen years ago, redwood two- by- six boards cost 32-cents a foot,” he says. “Now they’re $1.30 a foot. Only re-use made the project affordable.”

For homeowners, Warpenburg says cost savings can come in unusual, beautiful ways. He cites, as an example, stained glass.

“In Philadelphia, by the late 1800’s, there was a church on nearly every block,” he says. “Then churches consolidated, closed, which put a lot of leaded, stained glass on the market at 10 to 20-cents on the dollar.”

Warpenburg says stained glass like that is still available for reuse and suggests shopping for it on the internet. In addition, he notes that window companies have come out with frames certified for historical restoration. So now, stained glass windows can be rebuilt to current code while meeting historic preservation standards.

“I look at the world and its condition as a father,” Warpenburg says. “I want my kids and grandkids to have as many opportunities and options as I had. So wasteful habits of consumption bother me.”

However, he’s optimistic those habits can be changed.

“When they were little, I’d take my kids shopping and they’d grab a box of fruit strips because it had a cartoon character on it, fancy packaging – 90 percent packaging, 10 percent product,” Warpenburg says. “Then I’d show them the generic store brand, show them the ingredients were exactly the same, just a simpler box but with twice as many for the same price. That’s one little thing I could teach my kids. Now they’re grown and make those comparisons automatically.”

Teach by example, Warpenburg encourages. Practice the three R’s.