For a local businessman, sometimes what is in the package is just as important as what is not in the package -- specifically more packaging.

Mr. Hugh Watlington, owner of the Sail On store in Walker Arcade, said his two-year efforts to get some companies to cut down on the amount of packaging they send with their products to his business have not gone unnoticed.

Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company based in Ventura, California, took Mr.

Watlington's request for less plastic packaging in his order to heart and cut the size of the box they shipped him and the amount of plastic inside.

Mr. Watlington asked Patagonia to stop sending each garment individually plastic wrapped and the company obliged last week. The box of stock was about one-third the size of previous shipments and instead of 51 pieces of clothing with 51 pieces of plastic he received 51 pieces of clothing wrapped in one piece of plastic.

"This stuff is (literally) not going to go away,'' commented Mr. Watlington pointing to a styrofoam coffee cup on a nearby table.

"We are now talking with every other company that supplies us to get them to stop sending unnecessary packaging,'' said Mr. Watlington.

Patagonia even wrote about it in their May representatives report entitled "Field Notes: Highways and Buy Ways''.

Mr. Michael Lemmel, the Patagonia dealer for Sail On here, wrote in the reps report of the order to Sail On: "We now remove all individual wrappers from garments and put the entire order in one garment bag inside the smallest possible box. All back orders wait and go out with the next shipment. This is possible because it is a small dealer but as word gets out we may be left holding the bag.'' Patagonia has focused on the environment when advertising its Synchilla coat.

Eighty percent of the coat is recycled plastic. Old plastic bottles are spun into fibres and knitted into fabric for the coats. The remaining 20 percent of the coat's fabric is made from virgin polyester.

Mr. Watlington said companies are not ignoring the demand for more environmentally sound practises citing Hobie sunglasses. That company, he says, sends their products in a corn starch packing instead of styrofoam.

Sail On also has recycling bin in front of there business, located in the arcade's old cellar. They also offer a two percent discount on any item bought there if you bring your own cloth shopping bag. And if you do not need a bag to carry your purchase in, they request you do not take one. The plastic bags they do have are biodegradable and bought in Florida where the law states that all plastic bags must be biodegradable.