>Y DOST IK) By Chris Malette The Intelligencer \rfe\\ It seems when Sheila Harris got her green thumb, she discovered a green consciousness. The Front Street florist, who operates Flowers by Dustm, has turned her business into a working experiment for the three Rs of responsible waste disposal. Reduce, reuse and recycle are three words that are as important to Harris as the word profit. Look around her store. Dried flowers, potpourri, fire -starter bundles and ground stems turned to mulch and destined for the composter. They're all part of doing business "as we try to be more environmentally conscious." Harris says Flowers by Dustin used to produce "eight to 10 big boxes of garbage each week. "Now, we're down to a single bag for the same period." Flowers traditionally come in bundles in plastic sleeves. Harris' suppliers send ful it's going to be, but it sure smell nice." If you spot newspaper in the trash ai Flowers by Dustin, it's not because someone slipped up in the recycling drive. "That was used to clean windows," re marks Harris. Behind Dustin's are two bulging com post bins. "We turn out a lot of stuff for the comIt just seems to be the right poster and I've been spreading it around thing to do,' says Sheila Harris the ground whenever we get a good batch of compost. All of that would have gone to the dump before." dying flower petals in a week. They are Dried herbs become small bundles oi spared a trip to the trash and are reborn fire starter and even daffodils in Harris; in the form of potpourri. window display will "be used, for their "We have a system where we quality- bulbs, in the garden." date our flowers so they aren't kept and It's all part of the store's green plan. sold past a minimum half their expected "Everyone knows what we do with lifespan. When they reach that point, we these things, here, and it's just become nip the heads off, dry them and they second nature to place things in their make it into our potpourri." separate bins. It's no extra effort and reLikewise, dried rose petals are trans- ally doesn't make us any more money. formed into "our natural confetti. It's a "It just seems to be the right thing to new idea and we're not sure how success- do." them to her in that fashion, as well. "We just take the sleeves and place them in a separate container for the blue box. Same with paper -- all the paper we get in here. It goes to a shredder and we give it to a friend of mine who is a potter, who uses it for packing." A florist generates a heap of dead or < Sheila Harris displays her dried flowers which, in the past, would have gone out with the trash.