Halloween is such a fun holiday for kids and adults alike – who doesn’t like dressing up in a costume and eating candy?  Unfortunately, it’s one of our more wasteful days: Halloween costumes alone account for at least 6250 tons of landfill waste a year, or the weight of 2500 midsize cars, according to the folks at greenhalloween.org. Whoa!  I have to admit, when my kids were little, I couldn’t wait to go out and buy them a brand new adorable Halloween costume every year, not even thinking about the fact that the costume would be worn once, and then thrown away.  It didn’t even occur to me that there were millions of other costumes out there that other kids had worn once last year, that were also getting thrown away, and that would make perfectly good costumes for my kids this year.  Turns out, there is a national movement of costume swapping going on, and it’s not too late to get involved for this Halloween!

This Saturday, October 8th, is National Costume Swap Day.  It also happens to be Yom Kippur, so those of us celebrating the Jewish Holy Day will be starving in Temple on Saturday – BUT – the great thing is – the swap doesn’t have to happen on THAT particular day.  You can check out all the swaps happening in your neck of the woods (see, a lot in the NY area are NOT on Saturday), or you can plan and register your own swap event!  I am so excited about this because – well – I am a pack rat and I still have some of my kids’ adorable costumes up in storage.  Now I can finally get rid of them and know they are being used to make another kid’s Halloween fun and green.

Talia's First Halloween - Moo!

Even without an actual swap event, you can participate in this easy way to green your Halloween (and save money too!)  For example, my daughter Talia wants to be a Zombie Cheerleeder this year.  Turns out, her friend Allison was a Zombie Cheerleeder last year, happens to be a little bigger than Talia, and she still has her costume.  Voila!  We are all set for Zombie Cheerleading!  And Allison is getting her costume from another friend.  And so on, and so on…

Another important thing to remember this Halloween is that face paints and some kinds of make up can be pretty damn toxic and you should think twice about putting that stuff on your kid’s skin.  Check out these great tips from our friends at Zosimos Botanicals on using Vegan make up for Halloween .

So go ahead, find or register for a costume swap day event near you, and please tell us all about it when it’s over – and send photos too!  Happy GREEN Halloween!

Related Articles on EcoPlum:

Have One’s Pumpkin and Eat it Too

Tricks for a Green Halloween

A Responsible Sugar Fix

Image Credit: David Shankbone 2011

I hope those of you living on the East Coast all came through hurricane Irene without any damage to your homes and property and of course hoping all your loved ones are safe as well!  We were quite lucky here in New York City as the storm surges were not as high as predicted and the resulting flooding didn’t cause too much major damage.  What really struck me was how Mayor Bloomberg and his administration were able to successfully shut down a city with 8 million people with relative ease.  By exercising true leadership, amazing teamwork, excellent planning, and clear communication, they literally took a city that never sleeps, a city that is constantly alive with activity, and turned it into a ghost town.  In my 30 years of living in Manhattan (OK, actually I was in Queens for two years), I have NEVER experienced ANYTHING like this (aside from 9/11 – which is a totally different story).

On Saturday, when they shut down the subway and bus system at noon, I was thinking – what the heck?  It’s not even raining yet! But the Mayor and his staff knew that it would take 8 hours to completely get the system off line.  As New Yorkers, we collectively dealt with the consequences of this shut down, we made other plans, we stayed home on a Saturday night for a change.  Not to say that there weren’t huge inconveniences for many people.  For example, my parents depend on their home health aide to arrive from Brooklyn at 6:30 every morning to get my mom, who is paralyzed from a stroke, out of bed.  Instead my 90 year old dad had to do that.  I’m sure thousands of businesses suffered major losses from closing for 2 days since their employees couldn’t get to work.  Weddings and parties were cancelled and rescheduled, Broadway shows closed, tourists had to hunker down in their rooms (were the hotel bars even open?), I couldn’t order Sushi from my favorite restaurant after returning to NYC after four weeks out of town (boo hoo, poor me), and countless other inconveniences were incurred.  But I don’t hear any New Yorkers complaining.  We all knew that this was what had to be done as a preventive measure in case Irene turned out to be a devastating storm (like unfortunately she was in upstate New York, Vermont, and other places).

It makes me wonder what we can accomplish as a nation, with some good leadership, planning, clear communication, teamwork, and a HUGE threat.  Oh yeah, the threat is already there, it’s called CLIMATE CHANGE.  Unfortunately we are lacking the leadership, planning, communication and teamwork needed to tackle this one…

photo by Gerry Thomasen Flickr Creative Commons

Did you ever hear the one about the group who goes out in a small boat together? One of the passengers pulls out a drill and starts drilling a hole underneath his seat. The person next to him is shocked and, afraid that the boat will sink, asks the man why he is drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat. The driller replies, “it’s not your business, I’m drilling the hole under MY seat!”

That’s how I feel every day. When I’m behind someone in line at the drug store who takes that CVS bag just for the pack of razor blades they just picked up when they could easily slip the blades in their handbag (or better yet – use a reusable razor), or when I see hundreds of people buying bottled water and disposing of the bottle before it is even empty, or when my friend gets in the car to drive to the coffee shop that is less than 1/4 mile away, I think – why are these people drilling a hole in my boat???

Believe me, I’m far from perfect and I realize that every human creates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions just by living, but at least I am trying as hard as I can to minimize my footprint every day. You are reading this, so obviously you are trying too. The question is – how do we reach those millions of other people, people we interact with every day? I’ve been asking that question, and trying to come up with solutions, since I started this blog two years ago. And while I know from the emails and comments I receive that some of the tips and information and guidance I have posted here has inspired and helped a few people here and there, and the content we churn out weekly on EcoPlum and monthly in our newsletter has helped some to go green, it just seems there is still so much work to do…

I want to figure out a way to reach people who just haven’t had that Aha! moment, who just don’t think about the waste they produce or their GHG footprint, who just go about their lives consuming, disposing, wasting, polluting, without a care in the world that they are drilling a hole in my and my kids’ boat. I’m convinced that fear and guilt don’t work. It just causes people to feel insignificant and to throw their hands up and to go about business as usual. What we need is inspiration. How do we inspire people to care? So I’m reaching out to you, my readers, for some ideas. Let’s come up with some grass roots, community oriented action, that will get more people fixing the hole and less people drilling the hole in our boat.

Please post your ideas here, or on EcoPlum’s facebook page, or send me an email: gia@ecoplum.com.

This weekend I was up in Cape Cod with my kids and all their cousins.  The cousins were about to spend a whole week with their Grandmas.  My husband and I decided to take them all for a bike ride to give my mother-in-law and her partner a small break before their big week.  In a very uncharacteristic brain fart, I forgot to bring ice water in stainless steel water bottles for the ride.  When we got to the break in the bike path by Ferretti’s market, the kids were thirsty and my husband looked at me and said we’re going to have to buy bottled water (there were no water fountains in the vicinity).  Grudgingly I agreed. 

When the cousins were all sitting outside on the bench in front of the market, they looked so cute and I wanted to take a picture.  But first I asked them to all hide those “environmental disasters” called plastic water bottles from the camera’s view.  My nephew Ben looked at me quite puzzled and repeated “environmental disaster?”  At that point, I was unsure what to say.  Do I give him the same information I would give an adult?  Tell him about the Great Pacific and Atlantic Garbage Patches?  Explain that it will take over 700 years for that plastic water bottle to begin to biodegrade?  Do I ask him to watch The Story of Bottled Water?  Are these things scary to an 8 year old?  In fact, it got me thinking, shouldn’t we be educating our educators all about sustainability?  They are the experts on teaching children anyway, right?

So here I am back in NYC and back at my desk and my green world. Every day I have been voting for my friend Pamela in the Pepsi Refresh Project hoping she will win $25,000 to make a film about greening NYC schools. Surely if Ben had learned about the consequences of drinking bottled water in school, he may have understood my comment better.  I have been tweeting and posting Pamela’s contest on facebook,  but I wanted to take it a step further.  Let me tell you about what Pam is doing and why it is so important.

Since the summer of 2008, Pamela has been asking New Yorkers, “How would you make New York ‘A Greener Apple?’” turning this question and its answers into a self-produced grassroots campaign – “A Greener Apple (NYC)”, yielding over 30 short films. Pamela’s passion of finding ways to help make the city more sustainable has led her to focus her energies on Greening the NYC Public Schools. The K-8 public school that her children attend – The Anderson School (PS334) – is 100% behind her, as well as the energetic group of like-minded parents working on this same agenda throughout the district. During the past year, she has produced – with the help of The NYC Dept. of Education and Grow NYC, a short film entitled GREEN GRADES – NYC Schools Recycle! This 4-minute piece is a teaser to the film she would ultimately like to produce with the Pepsi Challenge 25K.

When I asked her what she would do if she won the Pepsi Challenge she explained “My intention behind this educational film is to inform and inspire New York City school communities about how to make their schools more environmentally sustainable. This film will positively impact the environment by raising awareness about the importance of recycling, reusing and reducing waste in schools, and giving students and teachers the tools they need to launch and manage these programs. By reaching this important population, we can create greener schools and environmental stewards, who can lead their communities to a more sustainable future”.

Please vote for Pamela today and every day for the rest of July to help bring sustainability education into NYC Public Schools.

Last weekend I went to my 30th high school reunion (yes, I’m that old).  I was blown away by how good everybody looked.  Earlier this spring, I went to my 20th business school reunion and I have to say that not everyone aged so well.  Why the difference?  Is there something in the water up in my hometown of Croton-on-Hudson that makes people age better?  My husband pointed out that the reason everyone looked so good was probably because the folks who didn’t look so good decided not to come to the reunion. The whole point of a high school reunion, after all, is to show up and say “look how great I look and how well I am doing!”  The motivation behind attending a business school reunion, on the other hand, is likely networking and business opportunities – regardless of how you look.  So I’ll venture to say there was a bit of self selection going on at the high school reunion.  What on earth does this have to do with anything??  Well it got me thinking; I wonder how much self selection is contributing to our environmental crisis?  At the risk of sounding like a simpleton, here’s my theory:

Business and the for-profit world attract people who are motivated primarily by money.   Non-profits attract people who are motivated by making a difference and trying to change the world.  Business has more power that non-profits, so efforts to curb pollution, conserve our resources, and save the environment take a back seat to profit making ventures.  The government is led by politicians who are either also motivated by money, or seem to be so distracted by their secret sexcapades and scandals, that they can’t effectively get anything done.  Sad state of affairs we are in.  Oceans are in crisis, climate change is upon us, landfills are overflowing, children’s asthma rates are soaring, and cities are running out of fresh water.

So what do we do?  We change the face of business.  Those of us motivated by social good need to infiltrate the business world.  While social entrepreneurship is not brand new, it is still in its infancy.  When I went to business school 20 years ago, my choices for a “major” were: Finance, Marketing, and Management/Operations.  The “Social Enterprise” program is maybe 10 years old, if that.  There was no “Green Business Club” back then, and this was the first year that the Earth Institute at Columbia (my alma mater) offered a Masters in Sustainable Business Management.  This is our future, our hope, and our best bet for change.  I’m not saying that non-profits don’t have their place, they are extremely important and play a crucial role in counterbalancing big business.  And so are those politicians who are fighting for change against the pressure from big oil and the powers that be.  But the more we marry business and social good, the better off we will be.  Kudos to pioneers like Gary Hirschberg of Stonyfield Farms and Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation. They have made incredible inroads as environmental activists and successful business leaders. They are my heroes.  But we need more folks like them to choose this path.  We need to realize that the most effective way to make change is by solving social crises with business solutions.  As those businesses succeed, their leaders with a conscience will hold more and more power in our society.  And we will have self selected our hope for change.

Here are a few of my favorite social ventures:

TerraCycle

RecycleBank

Wearable Collections

What’s your favorite “Social Enterprise”?

In case you haven’t noticed, we are an e-commerce site. We sell stuff. Our tag line is “Where it Pays to Buy Green.” EcoPlum started out as a place to buy eco-friendly products and earn rewards in the process. But it quickly morphed into an educational/informational site. My passion has always been teaching and I come from an academic background, so as I learned more about environmental issues, I wanted to educate as many people as possible: through my blog: “Confessions of a Reformed Consumer”; by bringing on experts to write monthly columns on Green Design, Green Schools, Eco-Friendly Beauty Products, Local and Organic Food, and Green Entertainment and Media; by posting top green news stories every day on facebook, Twitter and Google; and through our monthly newsletter EcoPlum Pie. However, somewhere along the way the fact that we sell products got a little lost. Well I’m here to bring it back.

So, let’s get the obvious part out of the way. Of course buying nothing is greener than buying something. So if you don’t need it, don’t get it. OK? I said it, don’t buy if you can help it. The problem is, most of us need stuff, want stuff, and will continue to buy stuff. Take clothing, for starters. Don’t know about you, but I’m not a nudist, and I need things to wear (plus I live in the North East and I don’t want to freeze my tushy off). So when my workout clothing has seen one too many spin classes and it’s time for a new cycling jersey, why not buy one made of recycled plastic? Or when my son’s backpack falls apart from carrying 500 pounds of books to school every day, might as well replace it with one made 100% from recycled water bottles.

This kind of thinking can be extended to all your purchasing habits. Rather than buying my daughter a new handbag, I got her one made of recycled juice boxes. I stopped buying plastic disposable straws for my kids’ drinks and replaced them with glass reusable straws. Lunches get packed in a reusable folding sandwich container instead of Ziploc bags, disposable coffee cups have been replaced by reusable mugs, we make our own seltzer and have eliminated plastic soda bottles from our waste stream, we use stainless steel water bottles and never buy plastic bottled water, and those awesome Chicobags are with me on every shopping trip. I know there are a LOT of people who could make these small changes towards a green lifestyle. But this will only work if:

1) People know WHY and HOW to go greener, and,
2) People know WHAT the greener alternatives are, and WHERE to BUY them.

So this brings me back to education and disseminating information. While my marketing people tell me I need to focus a little more on the products and a little less on the education, I still maintain that “An Educated Consumer is Our Best Customer.” Sy Syms, can I steal your tag line?

My Son Noah, Circa 2000

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with gadgets. I remember going to the Science Museum in Boston and playing with a really cool calculator that made clicky noises when you pressed the buttons – my parents had to tear me away from it. I even made a hand held “communicator” out of a juice box and tin foil that had an antenna, buttons, and was capable of transmitting secret messages to other kid spies all over the world. In my wildest fantasy I could not have imagined that something as cool as an iPhone would exist in my lifetime. I grew up before personal computers, cell phones, MP3 players, Windows and the internet existed. Then I think about my ninety year old dad, whose childhood pre-dates even television, and I am blown away by the technological progress we have made in the last century. OK, so we don’t yet have the flying cars pictured in the futuristic 1970s Woody Allen comedy “Sleeper” – but we’re pretty damn close.

So when I look at my son with his android phone that does just about everything but brush his teeth for him, and my daughter watching videos on her iPod I think – where do we go from here? Clean energy, that’s where. I know, the pundits have been saying that President Obama’s focus on ” clean energy” in his State of the Union address was just lip service because he knows he has given up on trying to enact any kind of meaningful climate legislation (not to mention the fact that he included COAL, NUCLEAR and NATURAL GAS in his definition of clean energy – Pheh!). Yet I’d like to take the optimistic road (for a change) and point out that anything’s possible. I realize that without the same subsidies that are enjoyed by the oil companies, clean energy companies will have a hard time competing. I also understand that big oil is powerful, nasty and desperate to keep its reign. But the times they are a changin’. At least I hope so:

1) The BP Oil Spill -While it was not the huge catalyst for change that it could have been, this disaster had an effect on people’s attitudes towards the need for clean energy. Graphic images and pleas for help spread over social media like wildfire. These images will remain embedded in our minds for a long time.

2) Crazy Storms – The effects of climate change will become increasingly obvious and the general public will no longer be able to ignore them. While those who believe that “God has our back” will never be convinced, the majority of people out there who are currently too busy and wrapped up in their daily struggles to be concerned will be jolted into paying attention as their cities start to sink under water.

3) Growing Eco-Aware Consumers – a few years ago, terms like “urban farming,” “collaborative consumerism” and “group buying” were virtually unheard of – now they are mainstream. Consumers are getting smarter about their purchases and are finally starting to revolt against planned obsolescence and inferior goods.

4) Education – more and more schools are incorporating environmental education into their curricula. As an example, my son is doing a science project on the effects of BPA. (No – not at my urging – I had no idea he was doing this until I stumbled upon some of his discarded notes.)

All of these things will lead to a greater demand for clean energy. While putting a price on carbon and methane emissions would certainly speed things along, I believe we are on the right path. I can only hope that my kids will one day say “I remember when I was a kid we still depended on fossil fuels for energy.”

As I’ve mentioned frequently, a few years ago I was clueless about environmental issues. I didn’t even know about the effect of cow farts on climate change. But then I had my “AHA!” moment and became keenly aware of the effect that my actions (and my eating habits) had on the environment. I changed my behavior and tried to preach as much as I could about it. Problem was, I was preaching to the choir. My mission to convert the unconverted, to get them to see the light and have their “AHA!” moment was falling upon deaf ears. What I failed to realize was that the majority of people are not going to have an “AHA!” moment and completely change their lives like I did. There needs to be a shift among mainstream consumers, which includes buy in from business, government, and constituents. I can imagine the frustration amongst the folks who have been environmental activists for years, banging their heads against a wall while the rest of us carried on with our wasteful ways. I’m sorry! I wish I knew then what I know now.

The good news is the tide is finally turning (can I use any more cliches?) and I think my job is going to be easier than the one that the veteran environmentalists had in front of them. Thanks to Al Gore and others, at least the issues are out there, whether or not people decide to take action. But there is another big catalyst in play: we are no longer having a party with ourselves. What do I mean by that? A decade ago, Seventh Generation refused to do business with Walmart – just on principle. Fast forward to 2010, Seventh Generation is all over Walmart. (OK, the fact that founder Jeffrey Hollender was later ousted by the company board definitely puts a skeptical spin on this – but try to set that aside while I attempt to make my point). Why the shift? Because Hollender realized that the only way to make a dent was to reach out to people where they were. Another pioneer who has been given a hard time for dancing with Walmart is Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S. Yet thanks to his efforts he has brought personal sustainability practices and awareness to hundreds of thousands of employees nationwide.

About 6 months ago, I was approached by someone in the sports world who wanted to partner with EcoPlum to promote sustainable purchasing to their fans. My initial reaction was to decline associating with a sport that, well, wasn’t exactly green. No way! However, as I started to learn more, it started to make sense. The sports teams were, in fact, taking steps to incorporate sustainability into many aspects of their operation. And while not perfect, we have the opportunity to get EcoPlum’s message out to so many, many more people about how they can live a green lifestyle and we can encourage them in making good purchasing choices by offering a great array of sustainable products for which they can earn EcoChipz.  Am I selling out? Absolutely not. I could continue to sell green products and publish green living articles to the already committed, but we’re not going to change the world by throwing a party for ourselves. We need to reach people where they are. Fans will go to these spectator sports and spend money on products promoted there whether or not the green companies get involved. So let’s bring our message to where people are already hanging out – whether or not it is a place with which we are altogether comfortable.

Can you think of a few examples of green companies that are reaching the general public without greenwashing?

Kids tend to see things in black and white: You don’t like me? You must hate me. He’s not smart, he must be stupid. For many of us, the tendency to present a False Dilemma carries forward into adulthood. Big kid that I am, I often forget the shades of gray in between choices and tend to think in extremes. So when I embarked on my environmentalist journey, I became passionate about minimizing my environmental impact in every aspect of my life and left little room for transgressions. I stopped buying plastic water bottles, started carrying around reusable bags and coffee mugs, switched to organic produce, cut down on my energy use, stopped buying things I didn’t need, reduced my water use, practically eliminated my meat consumption, switched to natural cleaning products, stopped using disposable dinnerware & Ziploc bags, bought a home seltzer maker, and cut down on my water use.

I thought if I could just get everybody else to do what I did, the world would move quickly in a direction of healing and repair. I went on a mission to spread the word about my enlightened way of life and thought that through education and sharing of experiences I could get others to follow suit. I became a green hall monitor, of sorts, and found myself giving the evil eye to all those bottle drinking, plastic bag toting, meat eating planet destroyers out there. Now, while quite a few people have told me that I’ve inspired them to change their habits, so many more have not even thought about changing the way they live. Why? Could it be that my drastic transformation from over-consuming materialist to radical greenie is rare, and that it represents one extreme? Maybe expecting the majority of consumers to give up the majority of their consuming habits is just unrealistic?

Then I started to look back at my own evolution and realized that I, too, was living in a shade of gray. For example: I didn’t completely give up eating meat because I wasn’t ready to stop making my favorite ragout sauce, but when I do eat it I make sure it is grass fed and organic. I still buy paper towels because, for some things, I just want to throw away the mess, but I buy towels made of 100% post-consumer content. I’m pretty good about not buying or drinking bottled water, but if I find myself in a situation where is the only choice of beverage that I have (i.e. it is given out at a conference where there is no access to tap water), I will drink it and make sure I recycle the bottle. So if the (self proclaimed) queen of green herself isn’t living a purely green life, then surely others can do the same? Maybe encouraging this shade of gray will actually rally more people into a greener lifestyle. Maybe I was going about it all wrong with my “green police” attitude. Cast a wider net, my husband likes to say, and you will catch more fish.

So goodbye, black and white, and hello green! If you are not ready to make drastic changes in your lifestyle, then OK, start with little steps. Make a change that doesn’t make you feel frustrated to the point of giving up. Pick something and stick with it. Then pick something else. Here are a few easy things you can take on:

#1: Stop buying plastic disposable water bottles. Carry around your own reusable bottle in your backpack, briefcase, shoulder bag, or purse.

#2: Stop using disposable plastic shopping bags. Carry around at least one Chicobag with you – these definitely fit easily into your pocketbook, briefcase, even pocket.

#3: Recycle at home and at work. Check out our “What do do with your stuff” page for where and how to recycle different types of materials.

#4: Stop using disposable coffee cups. Carry around your own reusable coffee mug. Ask for a ceramic “for here” cup if you plan to hang around the coffee shop to enjoy your coffee.

#5: Stop buying wrapping paper – use colorful newspaper, children’s art projects, reusable gift bags or cloth for your gifts.

#6: Stop using disposable wrap and bags for your kids’ lunches. Instead purchase reusable bags and lunch materials.

#7: Eat less meat. Reducing the amount of meat you eat can have a significant impact on the environment – methane from cows is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

#8: Take public transportation whenever you are in a city. Check this out for a guide of public transportation options in your city.

#9: Ask yourself “do I really need it?” when you are about to buy a new appliance. If you do need it, make sure it is Energy Star rated.

#10: Stop using paper plates and utensils. If absolutely necessary, buy ones made of recycled and biodegradable material.

It’s Blog Action Day and this year’s topic is WATER. To get the conversation started, I will share some facts about water (many of which, I must admit, I was unaware of prior to this post) and they are shocking:

* Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease.
* 890 million people lack access to safe water.
* 2.5 billion people don’t have a toilet.
* $25 brings one person clean water for life.
* More people on earth have cell phones than toilets.
* The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
* On average, women in developing coutnries walk 3.7 miles a day to collect water.
* In just one day, women around the world spend more than 200 MILLION HOURS collecting water. This lost productivity is greater than the combined number of hours worked in a week by employees at Wal*Mart, United Parcel Service, McDonald’s, IBM, Target, and Kroger.

Water.org Co-Founders Matt Damon and Gary White

What other actions can you take?

Get involved with organizations such as Damon’s water.org.

Donate just $25 to provide water for life for one person!

Help educate the our children about this crises – check out these lesson plans for elementary, middle school, and high school students.

Start a fundraiser through mycharity: water.

Finally, just sign the petition below to support the UN’s efforts to bring clean, safe water to millions:

It’s pretty amazing to think how wrapped up we are in our lives and how clueless we can be about how fortunate we really are. I mean, here I am, pretty dedicated to the environment, and yet did I know these facts? NO. Was I thinking about what I could do to help a child get safe drinking water? Uh Uh! But now I am! Thanks to the folks at Blog Action Day for bringing this issue front and center!

I hope this touches you as well. I hope we are all inspired to do what we can do to help Damon and White achieve their vision: the day when everyone in the world can take a safe drink of water.