Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day – you should choose a side. If you’re choosing Buy Nothing Day, that’s great; you can participate in this month’s green challenge here at Tree Hugging Family. If you’re choosing Black Friday, maybe you should reconsider.
Basics: 
Buy Nothing Day it’s fairly self-explanatory; it’s a day you, you guessed it, buy nothing. Created by the folks at Adbusters; Buy Nothing Day correlates with Black Friday otherwise know as the biggest shopping day of the year.Facts:

You have better things to do with your time than shop.
The U.S. is overwhelmed with consumerism, and this is one day …read more

You may remember the popular BYOB Challenge – the bring your own reusable bag challenge and the Paper Towel Challenge. In any case, we haven’t had a green challenge in a while here at Tree Hugging Family, but this month, it’s on.
Your green challenge, for November 2008, should you choose to accept it, is…
To buy nothing on Buy Nothing Day 2008.

Steps to take:

When I saw Enviro Mom’s post on Precycle and Reuse: Halloween Costume Challenge!, I knew I had to send some link love her way.
She’s engaging her readers in a challenge to Buy Nothing New this Halloween. And she talks about those yucky Halloween super stores that spring up in empty retail spaces this time of year. I love Halloween, but I do wish those folks would take to selling solar lights instead : )
Anyhow, Renee goes through her plans to supply her kids with Halloween costumes (in this case Statue of Liberty and a mouse) without buying anything new. And …read more

Our month-long June theme was the hefty topic of reusable shopping bags. We blogged and blogged bags, and yet there’s so much more we could have blogged. Bags are a big deal. We’ll likely revisit this feature at some point. If you missed any bag goodness, here’s a round-up of all things reusable bags…
The BYOB challenge:

The challenge kicks off
First BYOB challenge update
BYOB Challenge Update!!!
CHANGE: A Summer Surprise Contest
Reusable Bag Challenge Update – How Did Your Entire Month Go?

Reusable bag basics and overcoming issues:

How Many Reusable Bags Do You Need?
Overcoming Reusable Bag Shyness
Pros and Cons of String Market Bags
Reusable …read more

This month we’ve all been working hard on the reusable bag challenge. Now is your chance to tell us how you did.
Myself: I did pretty good. I only ended up with the one lame video store bag. Thankfully, I averted some clerks during the month, who were trying little sneaks, like re bagging my fruit into plastic. One bag is not so bad. I worked really hard to take my bags with me everywhere. I basically always kept them in the car, which worked well for pet store trips, and other quick stops.
Now, how did you do? Also, look for …read more

Go me… Go me!
So far, I’m only in for one bag – my previously mentioned lame movie store situation bag. I haven’t used that one bag for anything yet though. I decided to place it by the door to the garage. This way, when we’re on the way out, I see it and think “LAME” – which has been great for reminding me to always grab a bag, if I know there’s not one in the car.
Other than that, I’ve got nothing to report because I rock. I did look up some basic stats on bag use – none are …read more

Remembering to take your own bag to the store is one thing, but being too shy to do it is another.
One of the options in this month’s poll on why you don’t take your own bags is “I’m too shy to ask clerks to use them.”
While that option has only received one vote so far, I’m convinced there are many people out there who just don’t want to ask clerks or baggers to do something out of the ordinary. You hopefully have the facts on why taking your bags is a good idea, but now is time for some …read more

Plastic bags don’t biodegrade. But something must happen to them. They don’t disappear just because you throw them away.
In landfills, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to break down.
As litter exposed to sunlight, plastic bags photodegrade, breaking down into small, toxic pieces. Those pieces pollute our land, lakes, rivers and oceans. Plastic bits look like food to marine life. Look at the jellyfish photo to the right. Can’t you see a turtle mistaking a plastic bag for a jellyfish?
When fish eat plastic pieces, that not only hurts them, but it can hurt you if it enters the food chain. …read more

I asked Michael recently why he thought cashiers who were bagging my purchases seemed to always asked me questions like, “Is it OK if I put these things together?” OR “How do you want these bagged?” OR “So, you want your stuff in these (with quizzical look)”? It’s even been so bad that some cashiers stop several times during the checkout to ask me if they’re doing OK with the bagging. Weird, though this happens less frequently at grocery stores than at stores like Target.

The cashier questions and hesitation really puzzled me. I never got asked those questions before I …read more

Last month’s paper towel challenge was a little quiet. Still, we’re happy that some of you did participate and cut your paper towel use, and hopefully more of you will participate in this month’s challenge.
This month’s challenge is BYOB – or the Bring Your Own Bag challenge.
Peggy made a nice little chart for her paper towel challenge. Frankly, I’m not that organized, not about challenges anyhow. What I’m going to do is lay out the challenge and some ideas, and we’ll take it from there. Since this month is reusable bag month here at Tree Hugging Family, we …read more