Elizabeth Bates's Blog

BLOG: My Name Is Russell, And I Am An Environmentalist

Green Slate (9/28/10)

If you dabble in San Diego’s green circles, you may have heard this name before—Russell Levan—by day, an ecopreneur, by night, an ecoactivist.

On a professional level, Russell the ecopreneur is the man behind the Recycled Products Cooperative based in Encinitas. The Recycled Products Co-op started as a program under The Solana Center, a non-profit environmental organization, and struck off on its own about 3.5 years ago as a for-profit cooperative selling an extensive line of environmentally-preferable office products. Their website has over 2,000 of these items for sale, including recycled paper, breakroom items, cleaning supplies, and my personal favorite pens in the whole wide world, which are made out of recycled car headlights, CD cases, and cell phones.

Now I know that when I hear the word co-op I tend to shy away, thinking it means pages of paperwork to fill out, membership dues, and responsibilities that I just don’t feel like taking on just because I want to buy recycled paper. I have since been educated in the beauty of, if not all co-ops, at least this one. Membership is free, there are no order minimums, and you can fill out the membership form online in minutes (paperless, naturally!). The cooperative business model helps to negotiate lower pricing on the products that your office uses every day, and it provides affiliate programs for other non-profit environmental organizations.

If you choose to do business with the Recycled Products Co-op, you are also likely to be updated by Russell on all things green happening in San Diego as well as the best things you can do to help save paper (and money!) starting immediately: USE LESS! That is, set your printer and copier defaults to duplex mode (print on both sides), set your margins to narrow, proof before you print, and store files electronically when possible. According to the EPA, just paper and paperboard alone represent 38.1% by weight of the municipal solid waste stream. In fact, many of the items that end up in the landfills are recyclable or reusable in some way!

On a personal level, Russell the ecoactivist can be spotted working on any number of environmental issues, particularly in Encinitas where he works and lives with his family. Currently on his checklist are projects developing zero waste and garden programs for the school district, attempting to eliminate single use plastic bags from our City, State and planet, and going to an innumerable amount of Environmental Advisory Commission, City Council and local activist meetings to help the community and environment.

Mother Nature is lucky to have Russell in her corner.

Posted by Elizabeth Bates on Tue, Sep 28th, 2010
Last updated Tue, Sep 28th, 2010

Keywords

Green San Diego russell levan recycled products cooperative office products recycled paper

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