This is my next goal.

Let's face it. Tattooing is a luxury and a it is a pretty wasteful business.

Right now we are using bio-degradable cups and trash bag liners. Recycled bathroom tissue and hand towels (I threatened to get one of those old gas station cloth towel things, I got out voted there). And, we have two recycling containers and a compost container. THIS IS NOT ENOUGH!

This is what I plan on implementing within the next 3 months.

I want to move away from all the plastic that I can. I'm trying to find cellulose/ bio-degradable barriers. A few prospects for cling films, bottle and machine bags. Clip cord sleeves are proving to be a little harder to find.

I'm going to get a counter top water distiller. Why keep buying it? Even if you have it delivered, YOU STILL HAVE IT DELIVERED! And it will pay for itself in about a year.

I have this crazy solar powered tattoo machine idea in my head right now. These things do run on DC you know... This would have to come a little later.

I am trying to find an alternative to Petroleum jelly. You know, since it's petroleum. Plus, it can't be good for you. Un-petroleum has beeswax in it, so that's a no go. I have found something called Castrolatum made from caster oil. It's a little too expensive unfortunately to be cost effective.

I welcome suggestions, advice and any information that you folks can help me with. (like good recycled paper towels! They all suck to tattoo with!) I would really like to lessen our impact. It eats at me all of the time.

UPDATE ON THE ECO-CITEMENT!

Well, if you've looked at our other blog, you'll see that I no longer use petroleum jelly. Started making my own ointment. I have found biodegradable bags for my bottles. The machine bags didn't work and still nothing for the clip cord. I did get my water distiller and it works great! We've started recycling the paper portion of our autoclave bags (that one just slipped my mind of for some reason) One very exciting thing we've done is to start using a medical laundering service. We use sterile cotton OR towels for tattooing and underpads for our table tops. This has reduced our paper towel waste during tattooing by over 50% (two of the guys just can't get used to them and there are still some things you need the paper towels for) and has reduced the waste for table top barriers by at least 80%. The towels are washed and sold to mechanics and the like for grease rags and the underpads are washed and returned to us. Oh, and we've just moved to a biodegradable high level disinfectant! It's 100% biodegradable, can be handled without gloves (if you want...) and supports the World Wildlife Foundation. All this, and it's effective in just one minute! That's crazy!
Next on the list. I'm going to find out if I can recycle the needle bars (not the needle, just the part that attaches it to the machine) and I think that I'll be buying a small washer and dryer so that I can get rid of almost all paper towels used for hand washing.

Well, check back and see what else I've got up my sleeve and if you have any suggestions, please, let me know!