EAST HARDWICK – Jim and Mary-Ellen Lovinsky began making sustainable wood curl shavings as an alternative to petroleum-based packaging materials in the 1990s. Jim says they were intuitively drawn to the idea of waste-free manufacturing before it became common.
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Then and now, aspen wood from local loggers is shaved into curls with nothing added. The result proved practical for shipping delicate goods, such as their neighbor’s maple syrup, said Jim.
Their company, Sylvacurl, creates a product to replace styrofoam and plastic options that never break down in the environment. There’s no waste, he says. “If it falls on the ground, it’s the same as a leaf.”
Jim talks about the importance of using otherwise low value timber to keep the economy and ecosystem vibrant after large timber companies clear cut the northern forest decades ago and lumber mills left the area afterward.
The value of the Lovinsky’s sustainable packaging is being recognized as corporations around the globe have responded to customer calls to address climate change.
Jim painted a picture of the hard-to-recycle styrofoam peanuts seen falling from dumpsters and escaping from packages. He suggests they could be Sylvacurl’s wood shavings, which can be used as garden mulch, to start fires in a woodstove or composted. In the worst case, they end up in a landfill and eventually break down as any other wood product, notes Jim.
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When it began, Sylvacurl purchased all of the aspen wood used to make its curls locally from Robert Lamarre, and continued doing so for 30 years, until he retired in 2021, said Jim. Today, the aspen is sourced from Goodridge Lumber in Albany, meaning it comes from within 80 miles of East Hardwick, he added.
Even the sawdust created as a by-product of the process used to manufacture curls is used as bedding for the Highland cattle and Obahalsi dairy goats on the Lovinski’s Eastview Farm. The bedding is then used to top dress the 7,000 to 10,000 certified organic seed garlic cloves Mary-Ellen and the family plant each fall.
Since Jim’s retirement as director of Lamoille Housing Partnership early in 2024, he’s been spending more time on the business that his daughter Kathryn joined in 2021.
The product has been accepted by specialty products manufacturers as the ideal product for gift boxes, said Jim. Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro uses the curls to package its gift boxes.
The Lovinsky’s distribute their products to the business and industrial packaging market where, what Jim calls, void-fill packaging is required. The company offers a narrow and wide curl to meet various packaging needs in a range of quantities.
As the family works to expand the business, “Sylvacurl’s core values remain rooted in family, a healthy and sustainable northern forest, vibrant communities and reducing plastic waste in our environment,” notes the company website.
The Lovinsky’s offer products online at: sylvacurl.com They can be shipped, or picked up at the East Church Street warehouse to save shipping charges.
ed. note: an earlier version of this piece incorrectly spelled the Lovinsky’s name.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
