It’s been six months since Earth Day, and it will be Earth Day in six months. What have you done to help the environment today?

I try to be green. We recycle and compost, we take reusable bags to the grocery store. However, I also have my weaknesses, like using the dryer and warming up the car. I’m in Canada, people!
Last year, when an editor asked me to put something together about Greening Your Halloween, I needed to do a lot of research. I had been a parent for three Halloweens at that point, and making the holiday environmentally friendly hadn’t even been on my radar. Trying to convince Frannie to be something other than a princess was much more of a priority. However, I got to work, and you can check out the final product:

Make It A Green Halloween (Peterborough, Northumberland and Lakeridge Kids, October/November 2009)

You’ll find eco-friendly ideas for costumes, treats, travel, decorations and celebrations. Even if we each just implement one of these suggestions we can play a small part. (God knows I’m not doing them all – we live in the country, so I’m sorry to say that our car will be producing emissions on October 31st. If we decided to walk, the kids would only make it to one house!)

For more year-round green ideas, you can also visit:

Jen and Joey Go Green Canadian mom Jen describes herself as “a realistic environmentalist” (my favourite kind!)

I also love love love:

Green Is Sexy Started by Canadian actress Rachel McAdams and her friends Megan and Didi, this site offers daily tips for greening your life. I especially appreciate how the ideas are organized into categories such as “For The Girls”, “Workplace”, and “Money Savers”. The only addition I’d like to see is a “Baby and Child” category…God knows how wasteful some kids’ products and activities are!

Anyway, Happy Half Earth Day! Now go decide which Green Halloween tip you’ll adopt at your house this year.

by | 1 Comment

1 comment on “Have a Green Halloween!”

  1. I read your article in print before I read it via email online! Funny eh?
    Anyway, I am not sure how "green" I am for Halloween except that I tend to use hand-me-down costumes and donate costumes my girls have grown out of to family and friends…does that count?
    Krista S.

    Reply

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