Recycling is a pain !

Sure it's trendy and everyone seems to be jumping on the band wagon. But no one really likes to admit that it is a chore. It's ok, the cat is out of the bag. Go ahead and let it all out. Sorting, removing labels, rinsing out cans ect. are unpleasant chores and basically a giant pain in the ass! But those of us that are committed do it anyway and feel like we shouldn't complain. Consider this your permission to be honest about your feelings regarding the tedious day to day task of reducing your impact on the planet. It's ok, you are not alone. Keep up the good work!

Nothing learned from history

If this were not so tragic and horrific, it would be hilarious!




Maybe THIS time the lessons will be learned. It's time to end our dependancy on petroleum, nothing good seems to come from it.

Compost to reduce your waste

The EPA estimates that about 1/4 of the garbage that is put on the curb is compostable. Why ship this rich organic matter off to a landfill when it could be put to good use in your own back yard!?! There are hundreds of resources on the web to introduce you to the wonderful world of composting. In addition to tips from the EPA, there's composting 101 & how to compost to get you started. It's so easy these kindergartners did it.



Join the composting revolution and reduce your contribution to the waste stream. It's time to harvest your organic waste and turn it into a valuable resource!

Texting conserves energy?

Who knew? Texting is the greener communication choice . Sending brief messages from your cell phone or other handheld device actually conserves energy. Sending messages from computers uses more than 30 times the electricity. So go ahead and add unlimited texting to phone plan. It's good for the planet! Just don't text while you drive ;)

Do you suffer from Bagnesia?

By now everyone has accumulated a stash of reusable shopping bags. Yet so often when it's time to check out there you are again, kicking yourself for leaving your bags at home. What is a forgetful environmentalist to do? The enterprising folks at bagnesia.com have created some clever accessories to compliment their reusable bags. "" Grab your bag" door hangers, steering wheel wraps and key chains to help you remember your reusable bags. Or if you are looking for a more economical approach ( also one that does not encourage consumption!) take a cue from one very dedicated Toco Shop volunteer. After a little education on the consequences of plastic bag usage, Nicci Barty vowed to eliminate plastic bags from her life. Unfortunately she suffered from bagnesia. On her first trip to the grocery after making the choice to no longer accept plastic bags, there she was at the checkout with a cart full of groceries and no reusable bags. What to do? Let it slide this one time? Opt for the equally environmentally taxing paper option? She chose neither. That's right, no bags at all. The cashier was dumbfounded. Nicci was slightly inconvenienced since she had to load each item individually into her car and then again in to the house. The minor inconvenience was a small price to pay for the pride she felt for sticking to her convictions. So from that point on she decided that every time her reusable bags were left at home, she would elect to go home bagless. You would be amazed how quickly bagnesia can be cured. If you know that once you get to the store you will have no way to carry your purchases out but your bare hands, suddenly your reusable bags will become as important as your wallet, shopping list and car keys!

Are we doomed to repeat history?

This evening at least 11 people were killed when The Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. If ever there were a reason to evaluate our dependency on oil & car centered society, this is most definitely it. Unless of course you count the almost identical incident that occurred on June 13th, 1979. Hopefully those responsible for resolving the current catastrophe can learn a thing or two from the mishandling of the Ixtoc spill. Before all was said and done approximately 3.3 million barrels of oil were dumped into the gulf . It was more than 9 months before this disaster was contained. Despite reports that there is little evidence of this mammoth calamity more than 30 years later, it is very hard to believe that it has all just been deleted from the environment. Let's hope that the lessons of this debacle can at least serve to avoid the repetition of history.

Pucker up!

When life gives you lemons you could make lemonade. Or even better you could do some nontoxic cleaning around the house. Try these sweet uses for the sour fruit:

• Soak your toothbrush in lemon juice to kill germs.
• Homemade liquid plumber- pour baking soda into a clogged drain then lemon juice over it. The bubbly effervescence will safely do the trick.
• Straight lemon juice can be used as a general degreaser
• Equal parts lemon juice and water in a spray bottle make a great kitchen and bathroom cleaner.
• For vinegar based cleaning solutions add a small amount of lemon juice to help neutralize the vinegar smell.
• Clean and sanitize your toilet
• Replace bleach in your laundry by treating stains with lemon juice or add 1/2 cup to your rinse cycle to whiten and entire load.
• 2 parts olive oil or cooking oil mixed with 1 part lemon juice makes for an excellent furniture polish.
• For a safer, equally effective and less expensive hand sanitizer, you guessed it lemon juice!!

These are just a few uses for the juice of this super fruit. It's not new or improved. Just an inexpensive, super effective cleaning product courtesy of Mother Nature. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then that must be why so many cleaning products have a lemon scent!

Recycling should be last on your list!

Recycling is a great idea but it's really the final step in reducing our impact on the planet. There is another "R" word to incorporate into your life first. REFUSE- A sure fire way to eliminate waste. If you refuse to bring an item into your life, then you won't find yourself attempting to reuse or recycle it later on. The one item that we should all refuse is the plastic shopping bag! Click HERE for the disturbing truth about these lethal polluters.







Excessive packaging should be refused too. Bottled water, microwaveable meals, carry out containers, single serve snacks, you get the idea. At times packaging goes beyond excessive to just plain ridiculous! Shop conciously and support responsible packaging choices.

The best part of refusing is that it eliminates the need for recycling! Many people don't recycle because it requires extra work on their part. So for the lazy environmentalists out there, why not give refusing a try. All that is required is a little extra thinking!

" Can you save the planet without driving your family crazy?"

Colin Beavan- self proclaimed " No Impact Man" takes reducing your consumption to the extreme. His blog and documentary detail one mans attempts to alleviate his liberal guilt with the noble intent of saving the planet.

Why reuse when you can refuse!?!

It's become very trendy to bring your resuable shopping bags with you to the market. And everyone is capitalizing on it. These bags are available everywhere. But plastic shopping bags are still leaving stores in droves. Reusablebags.com estimates that worldwide 500 billion plastic bags are used annually, 100 billion of which are attributed to the U.S. It's ok to use plastic bags as long as you recycle or reuse them right? What if you learned that most of the bags that are collected in store for recycling never actually get recycled? Would that change your plastic bag consumption?

Here's Green Dailys case for skipping the plastic shopping bags and committing to BYOB ( Bring Your Own Bag) on your next shopping trip.

**Less than 1% of plastic bags are recycled each year and it costs more to recycle a plastic bag than to make a new one.

**According to San Francisco's Department on the Environment, it costs $4,000 to process and recycle one ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold for $32.

**Plastic bags account for more than 10% of debris washed up on the U.S. coastline, according to the National Marine Debris Monitoring Programming.









PLASTIC PLANET: THE CURSE OF THE CARRIER BAG

Petica | MySpace Video

Why your lunch is bad for the planet

The purpose of convenience items is to save resources like time and energy. It seems like everything is disposable these days. Paper plates, paper towels, plastic cups, platstic utensils and that's just your lunch! If not recycled all of these items end up in landfills. Convenience is a short term benefit with a devastating impact.


Consider these not so fun facts about school lunch in America:

Close to 2.7 billion juice boxes end up in landfills every year. (Container Recycling Institute)

Each child who brings a brown-bag lunch to school every day will generate 67 pounds of waste by the end of the school year - that's 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for an average-sized school! (EPA)

According to the 2004 U.S. Census data, there are 36.4 million elementary school-age children and 16.8 million high school-age children. If every child adopted a waste-free lunch (including finishing all of their food), we could divert more than 3.5 billion pounds of trash from our landfills each year.

Each year the U.S. consumes over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps. (EPA)

Lunchtime trash is second only to office paper as the leading source of school waste. (Green Teacher Magazine, Fall 2004)

A disposable lunch costs $4.02 per day, versus $2.65 for a waste-free lunch. That translates to a savings of about $246.60 per child per year. wastefreelunches.org




Here is the challenge: Give up some of your precious time and energy and inconvenience yourself for the sake of the planet. Opt for reuseable products and skip the disposables.

Adding another "R" to the list

Retro! Hop on this super sweet chopper and take a leisurely cruise down memory lane. Complete with rainbow chain guard & and tricked out spokes. Save some money on gas, get some exercise and there's room for a friend on the comfy banana seat. It's enough to make the all kids in the neighborhood go green ( with envy that is!). Come on down to the TOCO SHOP and take this baby for a test drive before it slips away.

New content coming soon

Welcome to the TOCO SHOP BLOG. Check back for up to date info on what's happening at the shop and resources for incorporating the 3 R's in to your daily life. More to come, see you soon!