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.
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.
I’ve taken the CoolPeopleCare.org’s Earth Hour to Earth Day Challenge. Now I’m daring you to do the same. I’ll even make it easy by recommending 26 different things you can do every day to help save the planet five-minutes at a time. It all begins on Earth Hour on March 28 at 8:30 pm and runs through Earth Day, April 22, 2009.
You can start by signing up for Earth Hour to Earth Day Challenge on Twitter for your daily tip. And be sure to send a tweet or email each day letting your friends, family and followers know how you’re greening your lifestyle.
For each of the 26 days, take five minutes to do one of the following:
Download the new iPhone app, GreenMeter, which helps you calculate your car’s carbon footprint relative to your commute and driving habits.
Learn the easiest, most convenient places to safely recylce hazardous materials in your neighborhood and commit to getting rid of the paint, insecticides and other harmful chemicals in your garage this weekend.
Quickly learn how to compost and re-use organic waste instead of filling up your garbage and our landfills.
Shorten your showers to five minutes or less and you’ll save thousands of gallons every month. Download 100+ other water-saving tips for easy reference.
What are you going to do 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.
