Connecting Businesses For Material Reuse

At the Green Business Network, we love it when we can connect businesses to find creative solutions for material reuse.

Earlier this winter, Sow Wild Natives reached out to us in search of an industrial-sized bag to store their soil. Rather than purchasing new, they were looking for reuse options from a business who might already have these bags as a waste product of their manufacturing process. We were able to introduce them to our friends at J. Rieger & Co. – a local distillery who just so happened to be looking for a way to repurpose their grain bags.

Sow Wild Natives is using the bags to store their cooked soil. That’s right – they are “cooking” soil to reuse again the spring! Many of the plants don’t make it through the growing season, but they don’t want to throw out the manufactured soil. So, they collect the soil and, in the winter months, sterilize it by cooking it in an old oven in their germination room. The heat from the oven helps warm the germination room. They then store the cooked soil under tables in the germination room in the grain bags from J. Rieger & Co. Storing the soil under the tables helps regulate the temperature in the room. In the spring, they will have their friends from Syntax Land Design add compost tea to the soil in order to add good mircrobes and nutrients back into the soil before they reuse it.

J. Rieger & Co. is looking for a long-term solution to repurpose their grain bags. If you have a use for these bags or are looking for another resource, contact our Green Business Network today!