Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW)

Welcome to Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW)! If this is your first visit, please click HERE for information and a complete list of all the challenges we've taken on so far.

There's a lot of great information in this post and I encourage you to read through it ... however, if you don't have the time right now, you might find the following quick-click links helpful:

• This Week's Challenge
• The Honor Society
• The #CTWW Gang

Last week's challenge came from Jen who suggested that we reduce the environmental impact of Halloween. What a great idea!! Halloween has become big business with costumes, candy, buckets to carry treats, flashlights, etc. Most of those items are either made out of plastic or come wrapped in plastic ... and many of them are one-use, disposable items. It's a LOT of waste! Does that mean that we ignore our "green" ethics once a year? Nope! There are many ways to reduce waste while still enjoying the event. Read on for wonderful tips and ideas ...

The Honor Society are those people who help us spread the "green" word by writing a post about our challenges and/or leaving pertinent comments. Let's see what they had to say this week:

Halloween makes Mrs. Green growl and gets her blood boiling. In this POST you'll find out why. But if you're thinking that The Greens are "bah-humbugs" when it comes to celebrations, think again ... they celebrate Halloween in a lovely and fun way!

Argentum Vulgaris offers us several creative ideas in this ARTICLE ... roasted pumpkin seeds, decoration ideas and a "caution" about disposing those pumpkin "guts".

EcoGrrl hasn't observed Halloween for years but she does celebrate Dia de los Muertos. In her words "It's a great family holiday, uses a lot of natural items like oranges, involves arts & crafts, and teaches children about honoring those who have passed before us rather than thinking of death as a scary thing." Sounds like a much more meaningful and fun celebration, EcoGrrl. You might remember that EcoGrrl suggested a previous challenge about riding a bike instead of driving a car. She has been car-free for over three years. Wow! In this POST she talks about how (and why) she started riding bikes, how she makes it work and offers resources for all the little "add-ons" (baskets, helmuts, etc.). It's a great article and I have a feeling it could convert even the most devout "car person".

Gaby wrote this POST about our challenge to ride/walk instead of drive. The problem she faces is that she lives in a bike UN-friendly area ... one that makes it unsafe to venture out on two wheels. So, she offers us ideas to make driving more efficient ... including one way which involves the Internet. For this week's challenge she got to wondering about the meaning behind Halloween. She then started thinking about how she could have a celebration that wasn't about buying candy and expensive costumes or about "following" the trends created by card and/or candy companies. She and Liz had a little conversation and the result was a brilliant idea ... something for the whole neighborhood ... something that celebrates the meaning behind Halloween and ... something which is fun for everyone. Curious? You can read about it HERE.

Alicia left a wonderful comment about this challenge. In her words "When our children were little they wanted to dress up as characters from the Bible so we got to be eco friendly even back then by using items we already had and they would have so much fun putting their costumes together. Because we live in the country we don't have a lot of traffic on Halloween so we don't have to buy a lot of goodies. That makes it easy to go to someplace like Whole Foods and pass out tasty good for you treats! Believe it or not there are a lot of good treats available and most of them taste as good or better than the bad for you treats." Lovely ideas, Alicia!

Costumes aren't just for children ... The Accessory Lady "dresses up" and this year she's going to put together her costume from items she already owns. She's also going to dig out costumes from previous years and make them available to others ... someone who might be able to use them. Oh the lucky person who gets them ... AL has great style!!

In this POST Cinella gives us an update on the walking vs. driving challenge. So here's a question ... what does science have to do with this challenge? Read her post to find out. For this week, Cinella shares that she and her family observe Dia de los Muertos, combining a traditional celebration with Halloween. She suggests that, instead of giving out candy, people give out non-food items, like rulers.

When we purchase Halloween goodies, how do we pay for them? Many of us use debit cards ... which have been in the news lately because a certain bank decided to charge customers for using them. That's the focus of this ARTICLE by Ann. While I didn't come away with specific Halloween tips and ideas, I did learn about change.org and the power of social networks ... and, from the comments section (thanks EcoGrrl) I learned that one can actually use a debit card as a credit card and avoid any problems. Wow ... a challenge on Halloween is far reaching ... rather like "Six degrees of separation".

Jen wrote a wonderful article which you can read HERE. She offers many ideas for greening up Halloween including trading costumes instead of buying them new. Nice!

Joanne shared several ideas on twitter. Check out her tips (all in 140 characters or less): 1) Wait til Halloween 2 prepare lantern. Seeds get toasted in toaster oven, pulp goes in compost, next day bake w/pumpkin. 2) Use clothing you have on hand to create a unique Halloween costume or rework old costumes on hand to create something new. 3) Visit your local organic grocery store for some tasty Halloween treat ideas. If its close enough to walk there, all the better! :). 4) Trick or treat with reusable bags. The kids can decorate them themselves. 5) This Halloween, walk rather than drive the kids to gather treats. 6) Healthy Halloween Goodies: Organic chocolates, Fruity organic cookies, Natural chewing gums in assorted flavors, Organic fruit leather. 7) Swapping Halloween costume a more eco-friendly option http://t.co/8bxqzQ0B 8) Green Your Halloween With Vegan And Eco-Friendly Makeup http://t.co/AGuqr3K4http://t.co/AGuqr3K4. WhooHoo!

Stephanie wrote Thinking outside of the candy box. One of the ideas she shares is to buy fair trade, organic treats. Check out her post for several other great ideas.

The Shopping Charity gave our challenge a front page spot. Thanks so much!

Wow ... really good discussions and wonderful tips!

The #CTWW Gang are those folks who share our challenges on twitter using the hashtag #CTWW. If you're a Twitter member, I highly recommend following them ... they have a lot of things to say. Let's meet them:

@waylandcook @groovygreenlivi @ggirlggreen @pfwoman @mom2tle @msmoreau_guid @whopaysthepiper @jnjgogreen @greencrescentae @ShoppingCharity

@littlegreenblog @tiffanystoybox @gogreenbeans @noteasy2begreen @nativegardener @accessorygal @hshawjr @trusk4u @Tmuffindotcom @FiveFreeApps

@nonmom @givetreegifts @Lynn_Stone @cjrthemamiblog @AlmostTruth @catcanpaint @topmovingtips @rewinn @dpixel

My final thoughts: It's easy to be seduced into buying a lot of wasteful "junk" when it comes to celebrating an event. Last week, as I headed for the cashier, I noticed huge crates full of Halloween flashlights ... cute little characters sure to draw the attention and interest of children (and who can resist the pleading eyes of a child). What bothered me, in addition to the obvious marketing scheme and the fact that these items were made primarily of plastic, was that they were intended to be a single-use item ... they were designed to fail after a few hours. The batteries were sealed into a compartment which wasn't accessible ... and their life span wasn't very long. The lever that opened the flashlight was cheap and sure to break after a short time. It reminded me, once again, that we can never relax our "green" standards ... that we must always consider our impact and make the best choices possible.

Great job, everyone! If you wrote an article, I have Stumbled, Tweeted and Facebooked it. You can help spread the "green" word by using the share feature at the bottom of this post.

This Week's Challenge:

This week's challenge comes from Rachel. She suggests that we revist an old challenge ... with a twist. Here you go:

This week, replace at least one incandescent bulb in your home with either a CFL or LED bulb.

OR ...

If you accomplished this challenge when we first ran it in July of 2009 (or before) ... or if you felt, at that time, that you couldn't participate ... we'd like to know how it's gone since then. Are you using Eco-friendly bulbs ... why or why not? Do you prefer CFLs or LEDs ... and why? If you're using Eco-friendly bulbs, have you noticed a decrease in your electric bill? Do you recycle bulbs ... if so, where? We'd like to know where you're at now in regards to light bulbs.

UP THE ANTE (On the Halloween challenge): Argentum Vulgaris challenges us further. Here it is: Don’t buy anything that is used only once for Hallowe’en! Make, or use what you have. Who's going to take him up on this one??

So what do you think ... ready to take on this challenge?

Until next time ...

WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!