As you know by now, I’ve taken the CoolPeopleCare.orgEarth Hour to Earth Day Challenge. In fact, I’ve written two posts that make it easy for everyone to participate. Each provides 26 things you can do every day in five minutes or less at your home and/or office to complete the challenge. I wanted to make it even easier with your own downloadable EH2ED calendar, which includes all of the links from the posts. Just check-off each day as you complete one of these easy green tasks. You can even mix them up if you like. And of course, please let me know of any five minute activities that I missed.
This is right out of the Simpsons. Seriously. Apparently our Australian friends across northern Queensland had a brilliant time on Sunday snacking on sausages and sipping cold drinks as they celebrated the state’s inuagural “Toad Day Out.”
Essentially, hundreds of Aussies young and old got together for a mass killing of poisonous cane toads (Not as cute nor as politically charged as Baby Harp Seals). They didn’t actually club the toads, but opted for freezing as a more humane way to “euthanize” the pests. To keep the toad cleansing even greener, they turned the corpses into fertilizer.
Organizers received around 3,600 of the toxic amphibians, the largest weighing in at over a pound. It’s captor received several movie passes and a trophy made out of a cane toad.
My favorite specimen was one that was reportedly turned-in in Cairns that had a fifth leg growing out of its chest, which offers a bit more environmental intrigue for our pals down under.
How did this extraordinary community event come to be?
The poisonous cane toads were imported from South America in 1935 to control beetles on sugarcane. Trouble was, the lousy toads couldn’t jump high enough to catch a beetle.
The toads bred rapidly in the millions and now threaten many local species.
They’re also voracious eaters, including chowing on small birds.
PLUS, they spread wonderful diseases, like salmonella, and produce a highly toxic venom.
They’re only harmful to humans if you swallow the venom, so no kissing cane toads.
Rumor has it that the inaugural “Toad Out Day”may be the first and last. Not because the local townsfolk didn’t turn out in droves; it was immensely popluar. But because local authorities are considering introducing a carnivorous ant into the eco system that just might be able to kill off the cane toad. Apparently, ants are a bit more industrious than the earth-bound salientians.
What better way to follow-up Earth Hour as we move towards Earth Day than with a spotlight on one the world’s leading eco-capitalists: TerraCycle.
Essentially, Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, upcycles trash and turns it into new products. We’re not talking just plastics, cans and glass. We’re talking just about everything.
They got their start by feeding organic waste to worms, liquefying their poop and packaging it in reused soda bottles.
Today, TerraCycle produces a host of organic lawn & garden products, household cleaners, fire starters and logs, bags, and office products; all from upcycled materials.
Every year BILLIONS of drink pouches end up in dumpsters and landfills across America. TerraCycle, Capri Sun and Honest Kids are working together to put an end to this awful loss of resources. As an eco-friendly innovator, TerraCycle is going to convert the used drink pouches into unique fashion bags, tote bags, and pencil cases for kids and adults!
Where a lot of “green” companies fall down is the lack of education on how exactly they produce their products, which leaves much to the imagination of a cynical public. Not TerraCycle. Throughout their site they do a nice job showing how the products are made.
Finally, you don’t become a great eco-capitalist without some great eco-marketing. Last year TerraCycle teamed with Target stores and Newsweek Magazine on a brilliant promotion. Again, one designed to get their customers involved in their mission while generating the “raw materials” they needed for their inventory: In this case, plastic bags.
TerraCycle ran an ad on the cover of Newsweek and created a postage-paid envelope that invited readers to send in their used plastic Target bags. The returned bags were then re-purposed into the store’s unique ReTote bags. Those mailing in their bags received a coupon for a free ReTote from Target. This ad ran last year in the April 7 edition of Newsweek.
Keep an eye for hopefully another clever marketing/recycling/educational stunt by TerraCycle.
An incredibly clever concept, combined with nimble writing, creates the M.C. Escher of empowerment videos. You CAN change the world. It just depends on your perspective.
I’ve had a lot of great feedback on my post about taking the CoolPeopleCare.org’s Earth Hour to Earth Day Challenge. It covered the 26 different things you can do every day to help save the planet five-minutes at a time. Here are 26 things you can do at the office for the challenge.
Donate/recycle your office furniture and computers to Goodwill.
Go green with your gifts to employees, colleagues, clients and vendors?
What are you going to do at the office to make a difference for the Earth Hour to Earth Day Challenge? Please let me know by commenting below and/or sending me and your followers an email or tweet.
As you know by now, I’ve taken the CoolPeopleCare.org Earth Hour to Earth Day Challenge. In fact, I’ve written two posts that make it easy for everyone to participate. Each provides 26 things you can do every day in five minutes or less at your home and/or office to complete the challenge. I wanted to make it even easier with your own downloadable EH2ED calendar, which includes all of the links from the posts. Just check-off each day as you complete one of these easy green tasks. You can even mix them up if you like. And of course, please let me know of any five minute activities that I missed.
I’ve had a lot of great feedback on my 
