The holiday season is hitting early this year -- my local stores have been stuffed to the gills with tinsel, garland and plastic rooftop Santas ever since Labor Day.
Green living doesn't just take a backseat during the holiday season -- it gets thrown off the bus into a ditch. Everything from Halloween to New Year's has been perverted into an orgy of consumer excess, making it hard to find anything green except the plastic on your artificial tree.
Take, for example, the Chico Halloween Bag, supposedly designed to take trick-or-treating to a whole new green level. What makes it green? Good question ... I'm still wondering myself.
It's reusable, which is good. But so is every other plastic jack-o-lantern on the shelf at Wal-Mart. It's made of woven polyester -- the plastic bag I take grocery shopping, however, is made of 100% recycled material. The Chico Bag has a self-contained pouch, an extra storage feature that allows you to stuff the bag into the smaller pouch. Huh? I usually just fold any bags I save (doesn't everyone?).
In all honesty, I haven't actually seen a Chico Halloween bag in person, but this sounds like a classic case of greenwashing. And the fact that kids enter a competition for the winning bag design, or that they donate some portion of their proceeds to a group called Treeswing, doesn't dissuade me at all.
If you want some real tips on going green for Halloween, take a look at this helpful article from Larry West, About.com guide to Environmental Issues.
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