Halloween Candy Overload

Two of my three kids went trick-or-treating for Halloween this year (the little one was sick). Now we are facing a mountain of candy, despite my best efforts.

I took the leftover candy that we had been passing out and put it out on the step after our neighborhood had settled down for the night. What do you know? Magically, some little gremlins spirited away our candy!

As for the kids' stash, my husband and I graciously ate every little bar that may have ever come into contact with a peanut. With a child with a severe peanut allergy, it's the least that we could do. (Actual peanut-containing foods are banned from our house. Our neighbor happily traded our kids' peanut-laden treats for fruity candy.)

Yet, despite this, and even after a family-wide pig-out, we still have a mound of candy left. What should we do with the leftovers? If you're facing a similar dilemma, here are some suggestions:

• Donate your candy to the troops.

MoverMoms is organizing a candy collection in the greater Washington D.C. area. You can also mail your candy directly to Treats for Troops, based in Florida. The Treats for Troops website states that they collect left-over individually wrapped Halloween candy to use as filler in care packages for our military men and women overseas. On their website, they write, "Candy tastes better than packing 'peanuts' and is environmentally friendlier." I couldn't agree more!

• Use candy on cookies and gingerbread houses.

The holidays are just around the corner and you know what that means - holiday baking! This year, try baking some Halloween candy cookies. Small candies work great for decorations on a gingerbread house; blocks of chocolate make good beams, logs and posts. You can even use gingerbread houses to teach kids about science!

• Reuse your wrappers.

Terracycle® collects and reuses individual candy wrappers, large candy bags, and multi-pack candy bags from Mars®, Wrigley®, and Cadbury® through their Candy Wrapper Brigade® program. Look for this program at schools and businesses in your area or start a group of your own!

• Conduct Candy Experiments™.

I first encountered this fun group at last year's USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo. Did you know that you can create a density rainbow using Skittles? Float the letter "m" off of your M&Ms? Make Life Savers flash in the dark? Neither did I! (And be sure to mark your calendar - the 2nd USA Science & Engineering Festival is planned for April 28-29, 2012.)

• Spread the joy - share your candy!
  

My friends at Celebrate Green!® have even more ideas for re-purposing your candy, including taking your candy to work, nursing homes, and fire stations.


Do you have a creative use for leftover Halloween candy? Share your idea in the comments!

Photo credit: normanack, via flickr (cropped from the original) // CC BY 2.0

It's America Recycles Day!

November 15 is America Recycles Day. How are you planning to celebrate?

For certain locations in the United States, 1-800-Recycling.com can help locate businesses near you that recycle everything from paper and glass to automotive wastes and hazardous materials. For example, Best Buy will recycle most electronic items at its US and Puerto Rico stores, "including TVs, DVD players, computer monitors, audio and video cables, cell phones, and more."

From now until December 13, Recycling Zychal is offering to "upcycle" your broken umbrella for free (you pay for shipping the umbrella to them). Send them your broken umbrella and they will make something nifty out of it. The Recycling Zychal Etsy shop sells items repurposed from the fabric portion of umbrellas, like rain hoods, pet toys, and dog raincoats, so I can't wait to see what they are planning! This video shows you how to strip your umbrella and ship the material cheaply to them:



Treehugger writer Lloyd Alter says we should take America Recycles Day a step further and strive for a Zero Waste Day instead. Today is good time to consider the environmental impact of what you purchase. Can you live without the latest electronic gadget? Find companies that use less packaging? Invent new ways to use old objects?

EPA has a great section on their website entitled Wastes: What You Can Do. It's broken down by location of waste generation and season, with tips to reduce your environmental impact. Check it out!

Celebrate World Car Free Day

Since 2000, World Car Free Day has been regularly celebrated each year on September 22. According to the World Carfree Network:

"World Carfree Day is an annual celebration of cities and public life, free from the noise, stress and pollution of cars."

I don't know about you, but where I live, life without a car isn't practical. That said, I think World Car Free Day is a wonderful opportunity to examine society's over-dependence upon the automobile. If you - like me - can't eliminate car usage entirely, try to reduce your dependence upon automobiles and learn to use them more efficiently. Some ideas to consider:

• Sit down with your family and look at a map of your neighborhood. When running errands, is there some way to make one loop around town instead of zigzagging back and forth?

• The next time you go shopping, is there a place to park your car that allows you to walk from store to store instead of parking - and driving - to each?

• Have you looked into all types of public transit offered in your area? Would these travel options - buses, monorail, trains, etc. - work for anyone in the family?

• Are you missing opportunities to get to know classmates or co-workers by carpooling?

Serious about going car free? Green LA Girl has ideas for renting out your car, supporting public transit, biking, and more. Check out Car Free Mondays, a series of interviews with women living (happily) sans automobile in Los Angeles.


Photo credit: Anuradha Sengupta, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Waste Reduction Week 2009

Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street has been spotted roaming the Great White North again, and you know what that means. It's time for Waste Reduction Week in Canada!

The beloved spokes-muppet was reported missing at the end of September, and video has cropped up on the Waste Reduction Week website indicating that Oscar is secretly learning about trash in Canada. So far, he has been spotted in Toronto and Vancouver.

You, too, can learn about the 3 R's -- reduce, reuse, and recycle. Visit Waste Reduction Week to download a resource kit for your school (this is a .pdf file) with forms to complete a waste assessment and ideas for a waste reduction action plan. You can also learn how to make recycled paper, build a composter, enjoy fun and games, and more.



(My thanks to The Muppet Newsflash for reminding me about this important annual event.)

If you liked this post, you might also like:

Waste Reduction Week 2008

Save Your Trash

Reduce comes first for a reason

Got waste? Check out TerraCycle!

Reduce comes first for a reason

reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce

Earlier this week, I was telling Itinerant Cryptographer how impressed I was with his most recent purchase.

"You bought reusable water bottles for the boys. That's great!" I enthused. "You don't normally buy stuff like that."

"It wasn't my idea," he responded. "The boys made me do it. They wanted their own water bottles. And they wanted to write their names on them."

I've been recycling water bottles for years -- lots and lots of water bottles -- generating lots and lots of material to be recycled. During those same years, I've recited "reduce, reuse, recycle" without giving much thought to the order of the words.

"Reduce" is first for a reason. Reduction of waste -- reducing our footprint upon the earth -- should be the first step. Once we reduce what we use, we don't need to reuse or recycle nearly as much. And I have an 8-year-old and a 4-year-old to thank for that realization.

reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce



reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce*reuse*recycle*reduce

Interestingly enough, as I was posting this, I found this in my in-box from my friends at Celebrate Green:

... We've been asked "What is the biggest money saving green tip you can give us when celebrating during the summer?" The answer is, tah dah ... do not buy beverages bottled in plastic. Filtered tap water anyone? Fresh, homemade lemonade?

What do you suppose people did before we had plastic? They used jugs, often of glass or glass bottles. Before you purchase anything in plastic for your picnic or barbecue, think about this: Every year Americans buy 50 billion single-serving plastic beverage containers. Most plastic bottles (approximately 77%), end up in landfills. Add to this the expense as opposed to making your beverage or filling jugs with filtered tap water and this is an eco-idea that's a no brainer ...

For more eco-friendly tips, head on over to Celebrate Green. You can enter your own "wee green tip" in their Wee Glee gum contest. You could win eight boxes of "all-natural, gluten-free chewing gum."


Image adapted from a photo taken by Kristen Holden, through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License

Have a green prom

Photo credit: Sherry's Rose Cottage via a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

Whole Foods Market is sponsoring Project Green Prom, a challenge issued to all high school students by teens turning green to hold more eco-friendly proms. From wearing environmentally-friendly make-up to using fewer paper products on the night of the dance, Project Green Prom has fashion, beauty, and decorating tips for you. Print your invitations on recycled paper or post the prom announcement online. Consider buying a vintage prom dress or swapping last year's dress with a friend. Share a limo instead of driving separately. And save your decorations for years to come!

Thoughts about Earth Hour

My family participated in Earth Hour 2009 on Saturday night. I felt a little guilty in the hour beforehand, as we frantically ran the vacuum, brewed coffee, and checked E-mail before turning off our electricity. But then, 8:30 pm arrived and we switched off the main circuit breaker.

And lo and behold ... wait! ... the stove is still on? We learned a valuable piece of information about our new house -- the stove and central air aren't connected to the main circuit breaker!

After finally turning off the power with the aid of a second circuit breaker, we sat in the dark and talked about how quiet it was. How many electrical appliances do we really need? What can we, as a family, do to reduce our electricity usage?

Then we read stories by flashlight and candlelight. It was very quiet and peaceful. The almost four-year-old and baby fell asleep. Itinerant Cryptographer, Kerm, and I read long past Earth Hour until finally, my curiosity got the better of me and I logged onto the computer.

In all, an estimated one billion people in nearly 90 countries participated in Earth Hour 2009, according to World Wildlife Fund, the original organizer of the event. Did Earth Hour really make an impact?

Some places reported a decline in power use during the hour: a one-percent reduction for Calgary and northern Illinois. Statistically significant? Probably not.

But did people world-wide start talking about how much electricity we waste? You bet. And opening that dialogue is tremendously exciting. We have to start somewhere.

Photo credit: Kimberley.♥
Photo available through a
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Thoughts on Pollution

My guest blogger today is Kerm, a 7-year-old who likes "bubble gum" and "organizing things." Kerm wants to share his thoughts on pollution with you. Kerm says:

"... Pollution is cool to try to help but sad. [It is sad because] you don't want the whole world getting polluted."

(Mama Joules adds: Pollution occurs when air, water, or soil gets contaminated [or dirty]. Too much man-made noise and light are kinds of pollution, too. Pollution makes it hard to enjoy the earth. If you've seen trash floating down a river or had trouble breathing when the sky is covered in brown smog, you've experienced the negative effects of pollution.)

Kerm has several tips to help stop pollution that you can try.

"Stop using so much electricity ... When you leave your house, turn off the lights."

"Never litter. Littering is bad for the environment. If everyone littered, the whole world would be piled in trash. Who wants to have garbage in their face?"

"Stop buying stuff. If you read this blog post now, then in one year, check your closets. If there's anything that still has tags on it or that you don't remember buying, get rid of it. Give it to someone who actually needs it."

"Remember to recycle old paper and boxes. Throwing out stuff that you can recycle like glass ... is just a waste. Remember to reduce, reuse, and recycle!"

"If everybody tried a little harder, the world would be a lot better."

Do we really need Thing 1 and Thing 2?

I was leafing through the Winter 2008 issue of Mizzou magazine and ran across an eye-catching feature written by Dale Smith. "Desire to acquire" profiles University of Missouri professor Marsha Richins and her belief that our need for things stems from our hunter-gatherer ancestry. She sees materialism -- this urge to provide for our "nest" and take care of our own -- as basic to human nature.

So how can we slow our rampant greed? The article discusses four "brakes" that Richins has uncovered during her years of research -- peer pressure (the desire not to be as greedy or materialistic as your neighbor), religion (warnings from above that we should not to be too selfish or greedy), raising awareness that true happiness comes from experiences and not things, and learning to value what we have (forming sentimental attachments to older items).

The article was accompanied by these wonderful photographs from freelance photojournalist Peter Menzel's book, Material World, A Global Family Portrait. Menzel had families from across the globe empty out their homes and pose next to their dwellings with all of their possessions.

The photos are quite striking. For example, an American family has a spacious backyard filled with stuff and a sprawling home looming in the background. A family from Japan has their many personal items placed into tidy vertical stacks because their home is small compared with their possessions. In western Africa, a family sits atop one of their two mud homes with an array of cookware and little else. A family living near the Himalayan Mountains had animals, blankets, and a large stack of firewood in addition to their cookware, but little else.

The contrast of the photographs made me stop and think about all of the junk that I am hoarding at my house. Why do I keep it? Do I really need it?

If you could only take five items from your home with you, what would you take?

Clip art courtesy of FreeClipartNow.com

Tomorrow is America Recycles Day!

The National Recycling Coalition hosts America Recycles Day, which is held each year on November 15th. You can learn about the basics in Recycling 101, read about the DOs and DON'Ts of Recycling, take the Recycling Pledge and find Events Near You.

For example, you can attend the Recycle and Shred-A-Thon and meet Can Guy if you live in Raleigh, NC. Are you closer to Waukesha, WI? Attend the Family Open House at the Materials Recycling Facility. The Colorado Association for Recycling is even selling a 2009 America Recycles Day Calendar.

Want to learn how recycling makes a difference? Try out NRC's interactive Conversionator and learn interesting tidbits about recycling like this one: "The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime." (I wonder if that's an average person in the U.S., or an average person across the globe? I suspect this refers to those of us in can-happy America.)

However you choose to honor the day, take heart. If you recycle, you're not alone. According to the NRC, "the U.S. recycles 33% of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years."

greenfestival™

Global Exchange and Green America partnered to create greenfestival™, the "world's largest sustainable living event." Upcoming Green Fests include the DC and San Francisco events listed below, along with 2009 festivals in Seattle (March 28-29), Denver (May 2-3), and Chicago (May 16-17). Attend one of these events to meet over 300 eco-friendly businesses, listen to environmental speakers, hear great music, watch green films, and enjoy kids' activities (like making a Green Kids Earth Badge or a sock puppet).

greenfestival™ is committed to having a small environmental footprint. They claim to recover 97% of all show waste, using techniques such as providing biodegradable plates & utensils, composting food waste, providing recycling containers, off-setting electricity emissions, and banning plastic water bottles in favor of jugs of water.

Want to volunteer? Work at least 4.5 hours and you'll receive free admission each day, a free T-shirt ("limited edition, organic and sweatshop-free"), and more!

Waste Reduction Week: October 19-25, 2008

I was tickled to learn that Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street has been tapped as the official "spokesperson" for Canada's 2008 Waste Reduction Week. According to their website, Waste Reduction Week focuses on "education, engagement and empowerment" by pointing out the "environmental and social ramifications of wasteful practices." (Or, in other words, think before you pollute.) My favorite was their Activities page, which gives directions for building a composter, making recycled paper, and helping you conduct a home energy audit.

Not in Canada? Check out Oscar's public service announcements on the September 18, 2008 entry of The Muppet Newsflash.

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[Updated 10/16/09: Fixed two broken links.]

It's almost time to have a Green Halloween®!

Corey Colwell-Lipson, founder of Green Halloween®, has started a new blog to help keep us motivated to celebrate our holidays in an eco-friendly way!

Green Halloween® began as a regional movement last year in Seattle and is rapidly spreading across the U.S. As Colwell-Lipson has said, her goal is to get people to "think outside the candy box." The Green Halloween® website provides some great ideas for adding some green to your holiday, such as handing out trinkets like stickers and collectible cards instead of candy. And before you buy that Halloween costume, Green Halloween® suggests that you ask yourself some hard questions: Can this item be used after Halloween? Can it be recycled? Does it contain earth-friendly materials or is it made of synthetics wrapped in yards of plastic?

Colwell-Lipson recently announced the launch of Celebrate Green!, a new book co-written with her mother, designed help us celebrate green year-round. Be sure to stop by the Celebrate Green! blog for even more ideas!

What does "celebrating green" mean to you? The easiest holiday for me to envision "green" is Christmas. I love to find our Christmas boxes and I get so excited as I carefully unwrap the nativity scene from my childhood, complete with the tiny wooden manger and the shepherd with his real metal crook. I even like the plastic reindeer (certainly not originally part of the nativity scene!) that come to inspect the manger. Isn't that what treasured holiday rituals really are -- reuse at its best?

[UPDATE (10/8/08) -- Check out Escape to Books' October 7, 2008 interview with Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell here!]

Website of the Week: Earth Hour

Looking for something different to do this week-end? Turn off your lights this Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 8 pm, and take part in Earth Hour.

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia on March 31, 2007 when over two million people turned off their electricity for one hour. This event was initiated by World Wildlife Fund as a way to make an inspirational statement about climate change. In one year, it has grown into a global movement. This special hour highlights the fact that we are all interconnected on this planet and that our global efforts to combat climate change – when taken together – could have a real and measurable impact.

Not sure what to do with your hour? Check out Ten Things to Do in the Dark, which includes suggestions such as replacing your traditional light bulbs with energy efficient ones, reading together, or taking the time to discuss environmental topics as a family.

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[Update: 3/27/10 - changed number of 2007 participants from two thousand to two million, as per the Earth Hour website]

Website of the Week: Save Your Trash

Recently, I read about Ari Derfel, a California man who decided to keep all of his trash for one year. The original report on this story, It's no garbage strike - man keeps a year's worth of trash was written by Kelly Zito of the San Francisco Chronicle. Zito reported that along with his discovery of how much waste he generated yearly (around 100 cubic feet), Derfel also made some startling discoveries about himself during this time, including the fact that he was stress-eating way too much soy ice cream.

Derfel’s blog, Save Your Trash, includes links to what Derfel has learned by saving his trash and some of Derfel’s basic tips for reducing trash. I especially like the photograph of Derfel surrounded by his mound of trash. It is a sobering snapshot of American life.

[Please note that Derfel does save EVERYTHING and he mentions saving some items that might be considered unsuitable for little eyes.]

The Carbon Fast

This year, the Church of England has encouraged Christians to undergo a “carbon fast” for Lent, the 40 days prior to Easter. What is a “carbon fast”? It’s when you give up things that increase your CO₂ footprint (or release more CO₂ into the environment). The rapid increase of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is one of the causes of global warming. You can find out more about the carbon fast by visiting Tearfund. Participants are encouraged to do things like take a shower instead of a bath, turn the thermostat down by one degree (or up, if it’s summer where you are!), or, my personal favorite, remove one light bulb from your house as a visual reminder that you are trying to live with less during this Lenten season.

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[Update: 2/11/10 -- Fixed broken link]

Saving the "White Elephants"

Did you have a good holiday? Did you receive some nice gifts? I’ll bet you got a few clunkers. Those are the gifts, like Great-Aunt Matilda’s polka-dotted knitted shawl, that you know you will never use. It’s hard just to say thank you for them!

Why not get your friends together for a "White Elephant" gift exchange? Have everyone bring their unwanted gifts and place them on a table. Put a small sheet of paper next to each one and let everyone bid on the items. The highest bid wins, with the proceeds going to a charity of your choice. Any remaining items can be taken to a second-hand store or a donation center like the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

Hopefully, you will walk away with a new gift that you really want, with the satisfaction of knowing that you saved an item from the trash. Remember, reusing things is always in style!