Green Your Halloween with Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Oct 23, 2009 Going Green
Halloween is a fun holiday and one that has picked up quite a bit on the consumerism side. And while it’s really fun seeing all the houses decorated and the kids dressed up in costumes, avoiding waste is still a worthwhile goal.
Reduce
Just don’t buy so much stuff. If you have Halloween decorations, use them of course! If you’re bored with yours, see about trading around with other family members or friends.
Think more carefully about how many treats you need for trick or treaters. How much overage do you really need anyhow? If you’re really into it, look into fair trade or organic candy.
You also don’t need to buy special buckets for trick or treating. Pillow cases have worked well in that area for many years. Any reusable shopping bags you have may also work well.
Reuse
I said it before: reuse the decorations you already have. But if you really need new ones, think about making them. Some construction paper, glue, markers, paint, or other art supplies you may have around the house can combine well to make creative Halloween crafts to decorate your home inside and out.
You can also find Halloween costumes or parts to create your own at thrift stores or your own closets. A homemade costume will stand out far more than one of the many store bought ones. But if you do buy one from the store, try to be sure that you either send it to the thrift store after or get one good enough that the kids can play dress up in it after Halloween. Why buy a costume to be worn only once?
Recycle
Start with your pumpkin. Make sure its remains make it into the compost bin rather than the trash.
Halloween only creates so much recyclable trash, but keep your eyes open for possibilities. If you aren’t going to reuse those costumes, send them off to the thrift store and maybe someone else will. If you made your own decorations with paper, make sure that any that aren’t in good enough condition to be reused next year hit the recycle bin.
Dead leaves can make for great Halloween decorations, then be composted as well.
What other ideas do you have for a green Halloween?
The 3 Rs with a Baby, Part 1: Reduce
Feb 23, 2009 Eco Friendly Parenting
Having a baby means you start using a lot more things. You can’t help it. Babies have a lot of needs. But you can do your best to keep things under control. This week is about keeping up with the the three R’s with an infant in the house.
Anyone with more ideas is welcome to share.
Reduce
This is a difficult one in some ways, as having a baby means you will have a lot of new needs. You aren’t going to be able to avoid it all. But you can cut back, way back, on what people say you need for a baby.
Reuse is the easy way, but today we are looking at reduce.
I posted last month about things I feel you don’t need for a new baby. Not everyone will agree with the list, but it’s a place to start thinking.
Things I didn’t find useful included changing tables, multiple strollers and walkers. There’s more, but you can read it there.
If it works for your family, cosleeping also lets you reduce the things you need for baby. You can probably skip the cradle and maybe even the crib, depending on how dedicated you are to the idea. It works great for many families, but others struggle. Do what works for you.
Another key step to reducing what you get for a baby is taking control of baby showers and such. This is difficult, since you aren’t generally the one throwing the party, but if your registry is under control it will help. Better yet is if you can talk to whoever organizes the shower so that you can encourage simplicity and maybe even encourage used gifts in appropriate categories.
When your baby is old enough, making your own baby food is a great choice. You’ll cut back on waste by not buying so many jars of baby food. You will, however, need some other supplies.
With my first too, I used a baby food food mill
But I also want to use our blender to create my own pureed food, and then freeze it in blocks for use. BPA free baby food trays
There are a lot of things to be careful about with making your own baby food. You have to be very careful about food contamination. Wholesome Baby Foods has some great resources to help you figure out how to make baby food safely for your infant. I’ll be looking at keeping our current VitaMix blender
Reduction is one of the hardest areas to come up with ideas specific to having a new baby, I think. Reuse, tomorrow’s topic, is in many ways much simpler. There are so many things that can be handed down from child to child.
