By Michele Marchetti

Posted: 12.11.09 | Tagged: Gifts, holiday, home, savings

In the 90s Dave Bolotsky left behind a job as a research analyst to pursue a career with meaning. The result is one of RecycleBank's Reward Partners: UncommonGoods an online emporium of one-of-a-kind products, including many that are made of recycled or reclaimed materials like old bicycle chains. The site also donates a portion of each order to your choice of non-profits, including one that Bolotsky personally works with to help underserved NYC students. We talked to Bolotsky about how his small company is making a big impact.

You founded the company in 1999, back before this explosion of green products. What was your influence?
It's what I consider common sense. Ever since I was a kid I loved the outdoors. To me the most beautiful thing on earth is wilderness. At a young age I connected the dots between garbage and the environment. And recently I had a bigger epiphany: what if all of us had to put our garbage in our backyard? What if everything we threw out had to sit in our backyard? If we made our decisions based on that reality, I think we would deal with things very differently.

How do you choose your products?
Our primary focus is creative design. So we're looking to delight customers with things that are unusual, but we also do want to do it in harmony with the environment. So if there's an incredible looking shower curtain, but it's made of PVC, we will not carry it. But rather than just throwing up our arms and saying, gee, we really wish it were made of PVC-free material, we'll go to the vendor and say hey, we can buy X units of this if you can make it in such and such a way. So we try hard to work with our suppliers to get them to be greener.

So you're affecting other companies as well?
Definitely. It's funny, we're a relatively small company, but in the niche we operate in, we're a decent size. We're dealing with a lot of smaller vendors and, in a number of cases, we're one of their largest customers. So we can, in some small way, influence them. In addition, larger retailers do look at the products we carry and I think—fortunately for the environment; unfortunately, from a competitive standpoint—what we do influences what other large retailers offer their customers. We were green when we started the company and it's always been a core value for us. What's changed is it has become a much more popular idea.

How do vendors react when you ask them to change their product?
It depends on the vendor. About five years ago, we asked a supplier to produce a decoration without any lead in the paint. And even though it wasn't a safety hazard to the user, lead isn't good for the environment. The vendor said they couldn't do it in that color and we said, how about a different color? So we ended up changing the color of the decoration. Often the risk of losing the business will get them to figure out a way.

What are some good gifts for people living green?
There's a patchwork scarf, which is a combination of wool and cashmere, made by a US based company called Green 3. It collects sweaters from Goodwill and has them washed and sewn into the scarves. Another neat one is the "Spaghetti Scrubber," which is our nod to the need for functionality. They are affordable, (a set of two costs $10), made from peach pits and corncobs and come packaged in a recycled paper box.

To learn more about UncommonGoods and shop their vast selection of eco-conscious goodies, click here.