How we do it:
We now offer a green moving service at the same hourly rate as we used to offer our regular moving but now there’s no charge for supplies (we don’t use any). We accomplish this using specialty covers we’ve imported from Europe to protect sofas and mattresses. Otherwise we use our regular moving pads and rubber bands to hold them on. For larger pieces often we’ll use cotton straps to add grip and some extra security with the pads. The pads, bands and covers work just as well if not better than the way we did it before with stretch, and this scheme works well for 95% of the work we do.
There’s still a few exceptions where we’ll use stretch wrap and mattress bags:
- you ask us to use stretch wrap
- you want your mattress bagged in plastic first, then put in our covers
- goods that are going to our storage will be stretched/bagged
- goods we’re delivering to a self-storage for you would be better off stretched
- goods you’re gonna store in your basement or a possibly dirty location we should stretch
But other than that we’ve figured out how to get it done without plastic and it’s associated waste, and that’s the vast majority of our work. We’re pretty proud of it, and when combined with our electric trucks, we’re able to spend a day moving without using any petroleum.
The world needs to cut down on the plastic so we’ve been working on ways to do that, here’s how:
Rubber Bands
For holding blankets on hard furniture we can use big rubber bands. They’ve been around for years, it’s not a new thing. A lot of companies that where too cheap to provide their workers with stretch have relied on rubber bands for years. I won’t get into the old “bands vs stretch” debate, but there are some elements where bands aren’t as good. However, combined with using some heavier straps we can mitigate some of those short comings. Straps and bands aren’t quite as fast as stretch in some circumstances but the safety, cleanliness and lack of waste is compelling
Sofa Bags
Sofas are harder to wrap in that manner, but we’ve purchased huge sofa-shaped bags that fully cover a sofa. They actually improve protection over stretch and blankets. We’ve had these for years but are stocking up on more. They’re expensive equipment but well worth it. We have some older domestic ones that aren’t in production any more, and since we needed a higher quantity we’ve had to import some from England. The new English ones are better in the rain and have some nice handles. We’ll be pursuing a good mix and exploring other options.
Mattresses and Box-springs.
There are “mattress carriers” which is a half-bag with handles. We’ve had these for years off-and-on when we can find a supplier. In easy situations you can just protect the bottom of the mattress where you’ll be setting it and they work great, in the past we’ve used them in conjunction with plastic mattress bags, but for a lot of circumstances we can ditch the plastic and get the job done safely and cleanly. The harder nut to crack is moving mattresses through tight spaces (3rd floor walkups for example). This really requires full coverage which in the past was with plastic bags or stretch wrap. We have found a number of re-usable mattress bags from a number of different suppliers. Unfortunately all of them are in Europe and getting the vendors to ship to the USA and paying for freight is no joke. We’ve sourced a variety and discovered different brands are better in different circumstances. Some are great for the average move, but there’s some that are more involved and though time-consuming, are unparalleled in protection. We’ve got an assortment of these different varieties of covers and carriers and adjust to suit the circumstances. Hopefully the popularity of these covers catch on and we’ll have domestic sources for them, currently they’re hard to get and very expensive.
Chair covers. We’ve got some and they’re very quick and provide good protection. They’re not as versatile as just using moving pads, so we’ve got multiple ways to protect chairs, which is good, there’s a lot of ’em out there!
Other covers and gear. We’re also experimenting with other specialty covers as well. These are again available from European suppliers at significant cost but offer possibilities to reduce plastic consumption, increase protection and in some cases save time.
A fuller list of gear and how-to for green moving:
- Sofas: using dedicated sofa covers (some imported from europe, some available locally) instead of stretching sofas
- Cushions, pillows, odd soft goods: we’ve found some big over-sized nylon laundry bags, we use these instead of the plastic bags we used to use
- TVs: We now have dedicated TV covers/bags. They offer much better protection that warpping, or even boxing and are quicker than either. Expensive but worth it.
- Rubber bands: equipment that’s been around for ever. They used to be cut up truck inner tubes back in the day, but are nicer now. Not as good as stretch in some circumstances, but they’re not disposable plastic…
- Chairs: we have some dedicated chair covers made from moving blankets with elastics built in, quite clever and very quick on most chairs
- Mattresses: we’ve got half-covers for easy ones without bad weather and also full coverage waterproof covers we imported from England for everything else. Much better protection than the plastic covers we used to use and actually make the moving easier. Not cheap, but a real improvement.
- Small parts: we’ve got a mix of small cloth zippered pouches (like a pencil case) and tiny cotton bags, all reusable.
With this combination of technique and specialized equipment we can do a move with NO TAPE, NO STRETCH WRAP and NO PLASTIC BAGS. This combined with our electric truck means a (sort of) plastic free move. There’s still plastic in our sneakers, the dash of the truck, and the turn-signal lenses. Chances are half your stuff has plastic in it, so we can’t really call it a “plastic free move”. But we’re getting closer…
Electric trucks
We’re the first (and currently only) moving company with an electric truck. It’s only one of our six trucks, so it can’t be everywhere all the time. It’s a good versatile size but your move may be bigger or smaller. Naturally if a customer requests it, we’ll do our best. Find a whole page on our electric truck here. We’ve also got a 2nd one on order that should be coming on-line in the spring. By summer we expect 2/5ths of our trucks to be electric, plus two electric company cars.[/grid]
Solar too?!?
We have 41+ kwh of solar generation on the roof of our warehouse. This is enough to power two electric trucks and all of our warehouse and office. That includes an electric forklift, LED lighting, and a mini-split for heating and cooling our office. A common criticism of electric vehicles is that the grid isn’t green enough. Well, you can’t say that about us. Also, combining solar with the electric trucks, it brings down the return-on-investment time of the electric trucks because the electricity is cheaper. The savings only get deeper the longer you have the trucks and panels.
We’d like to think we’re showing a viable and prosperous path forward for movers everywhere. You really can do moving with no plastic and electric trucks. It is more profitable, easier on the workers and better for the environment. There’s no downside.[/grid]