Cinder + Salt on Middletown’s Main Street is a store with a purpose.
“The name Cinder + Salt is inspired by the residue of a weekend well spent – the smell of campfire on your clothes and the taste of saltwater on your skin, and I really wanted our company to be a beacon of eco-optimisms, so when people thought about it, they thought about the good times they were spending in nature,” said Rachel DeCavage, who owns the store.
DeCavage says her vision was always to become an entrepreneur, and she found a way to do that creating clothing, while saving the planet.
“We are an eco-friendly clothing brand. All of the designs that we screen print are my original drawings, and we have a completely zero waste print shop. All of our apparel is made with organic and eco-friendly fabric, so we have a very good environmental standpoint from every aspect of the business,” said DeCavage.
DeCavage works with a small team, screen printing each piece of clothing in the back of the shop. She spends about four hours per day at the press screen printing about 300 shirts an hour.
The clothing isn’t the only product on the store shelves. There are environmentally friendly products to help replace single-use items in your life, like organic mesh produce bags to reusable straws.
Even the artwork inside the store is a tribute to recycling like the map full of bottle caps, which shines a light on the amount of ocean waste around the globe, and the mannequin dressed in plastic straws and bags.
“My goal is always to get people inspired to live a more sustainable lifestyle. We have collection bins for clean waste, so people can bring in their stuff that they can’t get rid of, like bottle caps and potato chip snack bags. We have beach and street cleanups all summer long, so we try to encourage people to come volunteer with us,” said DeCavage.
If you’re interested in participating in the clean-ups, you should register in advance at cinderandsalt.com.
The dates are as follows:
Beach Clean-ups @ Hammonasset State Park
June 22, July 13 & Aug 10
Location : Middle Beach from 8:30am - 10:30 am
All supplies are included - this is a family friendly event
All volunteers who register within 1 week of the event will get a free t-shirt
Street Clean-Ups in Middletown CT
June 8, July 27 & Sept 14
Location : cinder + salt flagship store at 520 Main St, Middletown CT - 10am - 12pm
All supplies are included - this is a family friendly event
All volunteers who register within 1 week of the event will get a free t-shirt
All clean-ups are weather-permitting.