The new store and the environment.

After several months work, the new store is up. Two years ago, when I first decided to build web stores, the first one I was anxious to build was a "green" store offering recycleable, reusable, and sustainable products. The store is now open and there is only one type of product so far. (I am looking at and for other products, and am trying out some solar yard lights.) I first thought that finding eco-friendly products would be easy. It isn't. Sure there's lots of stuff out there, but It is often overpriced, not well thought out, or not available. Then there is the question of quality. I won't market anything I don't believe in, so I test, personally, each product before I put it in my store. That takes time.

I am excited about this new stuff. Bioplastics are a new generation of materials that are made from natural products like corn, soybeans, and potatoes. It is a compostable, biodegradeable, replacement for all those styrofoam, paper, polyethylene and plastic dinnerware we used to buy for parties, picnics, and barbecues. Under perfect conditions the material can be turned into compost in as little as 180 days. When you compare that with our previous choices that sit in our landfills for hundreds of years and leave toxic remains, this is a huge step forward. I have been using the products in my home and am very pleased with the results. Yeah, at first my wife was upset that we weren't using the china, but now, she is equally impressed. We wash them and use them over as many as 10 times, and they hold up very well. They are strong enough to withstand cutting any meat or what ever and don't fold, even when I overload my plate. I'm done with the testing and they will be the exclusive dinnerware for our 2 week Christmas holiday at Big Pine Fish Camp in the Keys, and for all the trips in our 1966 Airstream. If you see us somewhere, stop by and I'll show them to you.

Oh yea, the new store is TocobagaTraders.com.