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

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.

Last weekend was my son Noah’s Bar Mitzvah (that would explain my infrequent posts over the last year). It was AWESOME!!!! But I’m not here to boast or bore you with my personal feelings of pride and contentment. No. What I want to share is how a small shift in thinking can make a big difference. Depending on where you live, you may have never heard of a Bar Mitzvah or you may have been to quite a few. It’s a Jewish coming of age ritual for 13 year old boys and girls. Anyway, after the service it is customary to have a luncheon or banquet or party of some kind. Going into this, I knew there would be waste and a footprint associated with the party but I also knew I wanted to minimize it however I could. So, here are a few choices we made that when adopted by others too, could help lessen our collective impact:

• We chose a “sustainable” caterer that used organic and sustainably sourced food. All leftovers were donated to the homeless shelter in the same building.
• We asked the caterer to remove the plastic bottled water from the menu and instead provide pitchers of iced tap water.
• We used China, silverware, and glasses instead of disposable dinnerware.
• The place cards were made of plantable wildflower seed paper.
• We used potted flowered plants as centerpieces. People took them home to plant in their gardens.
• The kids’ giveaways were reusable stainless steel water bottles customized with Noah’s name and filled with candy.
• Instead of a steady flow of plastic junk from the MC/DJ that is customary at these events – sunglasses, glo sticks, hats, flashing LED wands, pins and necklaces – we had one 3D LED necklace per kid (I know- better to have none – but we didn’t want to spoil all the fun!)
• We minimized the meat on the menu serving mostly veggie, fish, and pasta.
• One thing that could have been less wasteful was our invitations. Although we used FSC certified paper (we could not find any affordable invitations made of recycled paper) we still had a card for the service, another card for the reception and a third reply card with envelope to be sent back via snail mail. I later got a number of invitations to his classmates’ events with a simple reply to email address. Good idea. Should have done that (although I have to admit I enjoyed receiving all the reply cards with personal notes and smiley faces on them and will keep them all in a memory box).

So, whether you are throwing a huge party for a life cycle event, or just going about your daily routine, think about the small changes you can make that could reduce waste and emissions.  I’m sure that compared to some, my event may seem extravagant and wasteful, and compared to others it may seem green and frugal.  The point is, no matter where you are along the spectrum of conservation and environmentalism, it’s important to think about the choices you are making and ask yourself: Is this really necessary?  Is there a less wasteful way to do this?  Is there a greener alternative.  My friends at the Broadway Green Alliance say that there is no such thing as “green”, only “greener.”  Just by living we are consuming resources every day.  The question to ask is: what small changes can I make to reduce my impact, while still maintaining (or enhancing) the quality of life I love?

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?

OK, I don’t usually use my blog just to post a video, put I just love this and had to post it:

Have a wonderful weekend!!

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.

…or How Big Cities Will Transform the Way We Eat

I’m not talking about the kind of spam you get in your inboxes, I’m actually talking about the canned meat of Monty Python fame. Why? Well, I don’t know exactly, but my topic today is sustainable food, so somehow I associate spam with… non-sustainable food? Anyway, I remember when I first conceived of EcoPlum back in 2007, and I had a team of students from NJIT’s Capstone Project working on a prototype website. We were programming the “EcoTipz” section of the site and were looking for some tips to start off with. One of the students wrote “Eat Less Meat.” Well I was SO uninformed at the time, that I actually thought this was a joke. I thought the student was just populating EcoTipz with random phrases to test it. Turns out, the student knew a lot more about sustainability at the time than I did. (Horrified? Read more about my green evolution throughout this blog). It wasn’t until I started to educate myself in preparation for our beta site launch in October 2008 that I began to learn about how eating meat affects the environment. We then published several articles on the topic, and I learned more.

Fast forward to September 2010. Last night I was at a House Party where Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer came to talk about his sustainable food initiatives in NYC. I was thrilled to hear more about his Go Green East Harlem program and how it is now expanding to other parts of the city. Celebrity Chef Mario Batali has joined the cause by adopting Meatless Mondays in his restaurants. Chef Jamie Oliver and First Lady Michelle Obama are raising awareness and starting a school food revolution. Something really big is happening here and in other cities: urban farming, green roofs, curbside composting, healthy school food. I realize that for many of you in more rural areas (and some cities on the West Coast), this has been a way of life for a long long time. But this is different – I mean, who ever heard of growing cucumbers in the South Bronx? To get a good feeling of the kind of stuff about which I am ranting, check out this great video:

I hope you enjoyed it. Not only is this transformation fantastic for our personal health, but it’s also going to have a huge impact on the environment. I mean, we all have to eat, so this is something that touches each and every one of us, every day. How will you revolutionize your food?

Do you remember where you were when MTV debuted on August 1, 1981? (If you’re too young to remember, then hurray for you). I was at a sleepover at my friend Allison’s apartment on West 95th Street in Manhattan. I lived in the suburbs at the time, so those city sleepovers were super cool. The first music video ever played on MTV was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. That song has been stuck in my head for the past two weeks because: “look at me now, Mom, I’m a radio star!” OK,maybe I’m not exactly a “radio star” – but I was interviewed for two radio shows this last week. The first interview, which was taped ahead of time, will air on John Shegarian’s Green is Good Radio show on Clear Channel network and on greenisgood.fm the week of August 27th. I also had the pleasure of appearing LIVE on “Valerie’s New York” last Friday, July 23rd on WOR 710 Talk Radio. Click on Valerie Smaldone’s picture to listen:

Why all the publicity? Well, of course I want to get the word out about my social venture EcoPlum. But if you listen carefully to both of my interviews, you’ll hear that I am desperately trying to reach people – trying to get them to be aware of their ecological impact. We are trashing the earth and we don’t even seem to care. While I am encouraged by all the hard work by environmental advocates like Annie Leonard, Sylvia Earle, Bill McKibben, Ken Cook, Kieran Suckling, and way too many others to name, I am also very frustrated. Excuse me if I’m starting to sound like a broken record (to continue with the “multimedia” theme) but based on what I see every day all around me here in NYC, people just don’t get it!! WHY CAN’T WE ALL STOP THE MADNESS? I mean seriously, what’s it going to take to get people to be more conscious of their impact? While I am tempted to start standing outside Duane Reade stores yelling “did you really need that plastic bag?” and “are you sure you want to use those chemicals on your baby?” and “are you kidding me? – you did not just drink half of that bottled water and throw it in the garbage!?!” – I know that’s not the answer. We just need to get through to people on a higher level.

A colleague of mine recently recommended that I watch this video series by economist Joshua Farley where he talks about Ecological Economics. I thought he made a lot of sense, so I’m passing it along in the hope that it will resonate with someone in an “AHA” sort of way.

Economics not your cup of tea? Well there’s always the good old “Story of Stuff” video that does a great job hitting home the message. Other good videos are: No Impact Man, Tapped, An Inconvenient Truth, Food Inc.,
Crude Impact, and Who Killed the Electric Car.

So here’s what I’m thinking: most of you reading this don’t need to be converted – you already are doing as much as you can to reduce your ecological impact. But I know you all have friends, colleagues, co-workers, family members who are still going about their business as usual and not thinking about their destructive behavior. So please pass this on to one of them and ask them to take a few minutes to listen to my radio show or watch one of these videos. If they do this and write to me (or better yet – send a video) with ONE thing they learned and ONE habit they will change, I’ll pick one lucky winner of $100 worth of EcoChipz that can be used for purchases in our EcoShop or donated to environmental causes. It’s that simple. Let’s all be video and radio stars and get our message out, one person at a time.

Please send all submissions to videostar@ecoplum.com or post them to our FACEBOOK page.

It’s been almost a month since my last post. Why the radio silence? Well at first I was just overwhelmed by the Gulf Spill and I wasn’t quite sure I could write a post that would do justice to the whole awful situation. Then I finally pulled together what I thought was quite an excellent post about someone I knew who was from New Orleans. She had lived in NY on 9/11, moved back to New Orleans only to lose her house in Katrina, and now she is living through this disaster. But my husband pointed out that I should really get her permission before publicly plastering her story on the internet. Problem is I hadn’t spoken to her in years and didn’t know how to contact her. I sent her my draft post via the only email address I had for her and haven’t heard back. Then, this week, I have been dealing with an unthinkable tragedy at my son’s school, so my focus has been on supporting him, his classmates, and his school community.

So, since I find myself at a loss for words, which doesn’t happen very often at all, I think I will just post the article anyway, with the personal details deleted. My hope was to bring the whole situation a little closer to home by including an incredibly touching personal story, but use your imagination – think of the family of the charter boat captain who just committed suicide, and realize there are thousands of other stories that are just as tragic as his and my friend’s.

{DELETED PERSONAL GULF STORY – INSERT YOUR OWN HERE}…

It’s mind boggling that the BP well is gushing about 60,000 barrels of oil a DAY into the gulf (this estimate as of last week is twice as large as earlier reports) and nobody has yet figured out exactly how to stop it. It has been called the largest environmental disaster in US history and its ongoing effect will be economically worse for the Gulf region than Katrina. So where does this leave us?

We should all do whatever we can to help in the clean up efforts. MatterofTrust.org is collecting hair, fur, fleece and feathers from hair salons, farmers, schools and individuals to make booms (the hair soaks up the oil). As of last week, they had collected enough fiber to make 25 miles of boom! So far 10 miles of boom have been made and deployed on gulf beaches to clean up oil, but funds are needed to make and deploy the other 15 miles of boom. To help get this these booms made and out to the gulf beaches, EcoPlum is donating $10 for every new customer through this cause marketing campaign. Check out 10 more suggestions on ways to help from Care2.org.

Take responsibility. The blame for this disaster lies with many: the government agencies that turned their heads and did not enforce regulations, BP management’s ignoring of warnings from employees about unsafe conditions, as well as our own addiction to oil. It’s easy to point the finger at others, but we must also look at our own habits that contribute to the need to drill for petroleum in the first place. You and I can’t give back to {Insert Name Here} all that he/she has lost in his/her life, but we can try to make him/her and his/her family’s future a little brighter. So when you go about your business today, try to walk, bike and use public transportation, don’t buy disposable plastic water bottles, don’t use plastic bags, turn off your lights, reuse your coffee cup, and just do your part. We can all help us move away from the likelihood of something like this occurring again and affecting so, so many lives.