I love the Earth but I Don't Love Earth Day

This originally ran on In the Powder Room in 2013. I'm re-running it here because two years later and I'm still in favor of more tree-hugging, less green-washing.

While the origins of Earth Day are admirable and pure – a day dedicated to environmental awareness and education  – Earth Day in 2015 is no longer really about those founding values. I suggest we all do Mother Nature a favor and not celebrate Earth Day.

While hippies and wannabe hippies everywhere have been busy adjusting their solar panels and building rain barrels in an ongoing pursuit of an eco-fabulous lifestyle, it seems just about every big company has re-branded Earth Day as its own totally amazing marketing opportunity.

There are tons of Earth Day-themed children’s shows, because if encouraging kids to sit on the couch and waste electricity watching TV doesn’t honor the earth, I don’t know what does. Disney gives us a new episode of Handy Manny, The Earth Day Challenge, and PBS and Scholastic present the video WordGirl: Earth Day Girl ($14.99). Yay for sedentary indoor lifestyles! Totes eco-friendly!

Scholastic further earns my ire by having its Earth Day school unit sponsored by Keep America Beautiful, an organization that can appear as eco-friendly on the outside as it wants, but can’t change the fact that it’s funded largely by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle Waters. Oh, and by Altria – which despite the benign sounding name owns Philip Morris, and even the most skilled advertiser can't convince me cigarettes keep America even a little bit beautiful. These corporations are Mother Nature’s frenemies at best, and yet somehow they’re the ones throwing her party.

My earth-loving heart also holds a special place of scorn for Oriental Trading Company. While I do not begrudge their right to sell mass-produced items of questionable quality that have a pretty straight trajectory from birthday party goodie bag to landfill, I do condemn them for selling that same crap in the name of Earth Day.

A few items from Oriental Trading’s Earth Day offerings include “I love the earth” stickers ($2.50 per 100 sticker roll) and latex balloons ($4.50 per dozen), which are described as “a fun way to start your Earth Day activities.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually start save-the-earth activities by destroying the planet. But maybe that’s just me.  

Corporations aren’t the only ones dissing Mama Earth on her big day. Government agencies are getting in on the Earth Day “celebrating” too. In fact, the State of Utah’s Oil, Gas & Mining Agency is hosting an Earth Day poster contest that asks kids to answer this environmental conundrum: “Where would WE be without oil, gas & mining?” That’s right, an ode to the destruction of the planet was created not just for any holiday, but specifically in honor of EarthDay.

This year, let's celebrate Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22, the way the original Earth Day organizers intended -- by encouraging conservation through awareness and education, not consumption. Let’s tell the companies we’re literally not buying any of their Earth Day crap.

You won't find me in line at the Disney store’s Earth Day celebration waiting for a cast member to give me my 327th “eco-friendly” tote bag, but I will take a hike with my kids. And while we’re in the woods, we just might hug a tree and whisper, “Happy Earth Day.”

Mother Earth to Oriental Trading: Don't Try to Friend Me On Facebook



Image from EarthDay.org

Once again, Oriental Trading is making me crazy with their offerings for Earth Day.

On behalf of Mother Earth, let me be the one to tell you, Oriental Trading, that she is totally not happy that you are selling item after item of disposable plastic and paper junk in honor of... EARTH DAY.

Most of us celebrate Earth Day by doing something to help the planet. But then again, most of us aren't trying to make a buck off of "saving" the planet.

All of which is to say, I wish you wouldn't sell crap and claim it's good for the planet, when you know perfectly well that it isn't.

And Mother Earth? She is totally pissed off about it.

Among the worst Earth Day offerings from Oriental "Not Facebook Friends with Mother Earth" Trading:

• Our Earth Punch Balls, 'cause you don't need to be a junior ecologist to know these are totally not awesome for the environment:

Recycle Rubber Duckies, which I'm guessing can't be recycled:

Earth Day Photo Frames - because why craft a unique frame out of recycled materials, when you could buy all new mass-produced stuff to make frames that are basically all the same?

And then there are these Jumbo Earth Sticker Sheets, because having a giant sticker saying "Save our Planet" is practically the same thing as actually like doing something to um, y'know... save our planet.

And last, but not least, the vinyl, won't-last-five-minutes, Earth Kick Balls, because nothing says "I love the earth" like a toy that gets barely used before ending up in the trash where it will live on indefinitely.

This post is recycled from Earth Day 2010 and Earth Day 2011 and has been updated to include the latest Earth Day product line extensions from OTC.

No trees were harmed in the writing of this blog post.

And there are plenty of companies doing good for Earth Day, here are a few of my favorites.
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I'm linking this post up to Finding the Funny (with My Life and Kids and Kelley's Break Room), because even though it is ultimately not at all funny, it is still sorta funny that they are selling this stuff.

Happy Earth Day!

I can't believe how many posts I've written about Earth Day. Three posts complaining about the corporate machine and what it's doing to the earth. A positive one about companies doing good for the earth. A futuristic one about lunch transportation for the green generation. I shared my favorite books for tree-huggers and an easy craft using recycled crayons.

And yet... I'm writing one more post. Here's my list of easy-being-green ways to celebrate Earth Day.

1. Go Outside. Enjoy nature. Take a hike. Remember why we care about the Earth and even have Earth Day in the first place. (No latex balloons needed!)

2. Do something nice for the earth. Make a donation to EarthDay.org. Or Plant a tree. You could even just be nice to a person living on the earth.

3. Start a compost. I had to include this one because I'm obsessed lately with composting. And yes, I know it's not for everyone.

4. Ride your bike, walk or take the bus instead of driving. If you are a must-drive kinda person, carpool. Just this once.

5. Leave the TV off. It's Screen-Free Week after all. And doing this small but symbolic gesture of conservation - isn't that all Earth Day is about anyway?

Got some better ideas? Let me know how you plan to celebrate Earth Day tomorrow and every day!

Fun and Easy Earth Day Craft Project: Make Recycled Crayons.... Out of Crayons

We're pretty crafty here at the Random Handprints household, but it I am the first to admit we are often more about process then results. Rarely does one of our projects come out well enough to be blog worthy. So, it is with great happiness that I share with you a super-fun project I did with my girls (ages five and seven) that was easy, and had great results.

Best of all, this project uses up all the old bits and pieces of broken crayons so it's eco-friendly, too.

Here's what to do:

1. Gather all the broken crayons you can find. Personally, I turned this into a clean-under-the-beds and look-behind-the-books kind of project since the kids were inspired.

2. Take the paper off the crayons and discard any cheap ones that aren't likely to be made of wax, because if they aren't the don't melt as well.

3. Arrange the crayons artistically in muffin tins.

4. Put them in the oven (preheated to 200 degrees) for five or ten minutes. You can watch them melt (which my kids loved) and when they've liquefied, they're ready to come out.

5. Let them cool (at least thirty minutes), and they should pop right out of the muffin tins once they've hardened.

6. Enjoy drawing with your new crayons, or give them as an eco-fabulous present.  I think they'd make great birthday party favors, too.

7. Try not to think too hard about what it means to have just spent an hour making crayons out of... crayons.

In honor of Earth Day... A few companies Mother Earth would be proud to call friends

I figured since I took the time to complain about a pile of companies doing crappy stuff in the name of Mother Earth, I should also take the time to commend a few fabulous companies putting the green in, well, being green.

One of my favorite kids products is Planet Box ($34.95-$59.95), I went on and on about how great they are on a Momtrends post already, but this lunch transportation for the green generation not only will cut your kids lunch waste down to nothing (most kids generate ninety pounds of lunch garbage a year) the ingenious bento design really will encourage your kids to eat healthier. Just look out yummy this lunch looks:

I'm also a big fan of Hape International toys, which are designed with the belief that Whatever you do to the earth, you also do to your children. This company's vision and dedication to social responsibility is inspiring, not to mention the toys are well-made, sold in ecologically-sound packaging, and fun.

My son loves his car, the e-racer Monza ($19.99):

And last, there's Green Toys, made in the USA mainly from recycled milk jugs. My kids have the Indoor Gardening Kit ($19.99) from which they were able to grow real-life plants. And I like the look of the sweet yellow pots sitting in my kitchen window.

For my picks for great books to read with your kids for Earth Day, check out my post on Momtrends.

I was not compensated for this post. I purchased all these toys for my kids who don't need any more toys, so I guess I too could work on being a better friend to Mother Earth.

I'd love to hear about any other great green companies. Please share in honor of Earth Day!

More Companies Mother Earth Won't Be Liking on Facebook

Earth Day is April 22 and it seems just about every company has seized upon this day for what it really is - a super-awesome marketing opportunity. They seemed to have made a slight change from EarthDay.org's slogan "a billion acts of green" and made it a billion acts of greed.

I've already posted about the atrocities committed in the name of Earth Day by Oriental Trading Company and Gymboree, but a quick look around on the Internet showed me many, many companies doing things market-y but not particularly love-thy-earth-y.

Just a few of the many examples:

• Target is holding a Refresh Your Nest contest (part of their entire Earth Month!). And while the premise is that the Grand Prize Makeover will make your home more "sustainable" it's also worth up to $50,000 so I'm guessing it's going to include a lot of new items, which aren't exactly earth-friendly.
• FAO Schwartz is selling a line of Greenzys stuffed animals, such as Peat the Penguin. 



Photo from FAOSchwartz.com

I am less convinced of the toy company's commitment to the environment and more convinced of their commitment to sell more stuffed animals. This is after all the same store that is selling a collection of Christian Laboutin Shoes for your Barbie. For $74.99.


Photo from FAOSchwartz.com

• And Disney. Thank you, Disney for never letting me down when it comes to exploiting a marketing opportunity whether it is Earth Day or a new Mom in the hospital.  It was hard to choose from the character laden totes, tees, mugs and water bottles. Thank goodness there is a photo of them all together in (that's right!) the online Earth Day Store - with the tag line I helped the Planet today. Really? Does buying more stuff you don't really need help the planet just because it's under the guise of reusable?

Photo from DisneyStore.com

Sadly, the list goes on and on. If you want to read more, The New York Times had a good article last year: Earth Day is Now Big Business and I love Inhabit's Top Five Dumbest Greenwashed Earth Day Gimmicks - which includes junk food marketed as "eco-food."

This is my last post complaining about dumb marketing for Earth Day. I'm moving on to dumb marketing for Mother's Day.

Gymboree - Someone Else Mother Earth Won't Be Friending on Facebook Anytime Soon

After ranting about the earth-destroying products Oriental Trading is selling in the name of Earth Day, I can't help but notice that they are sadly so not alone in their marketing exploitation of Earth Day.

Next up for Public Enemy #1 of Mother Earth: Gymboree. To be fair, I already don't really like the store because they have been so rude to me the few times I've tried to return something, and I think their clothes are a little bit too much geared-towards-the-pageant-set for my lil' Manhattan Fashionistas.

Yet, there I was, at the mall and my son needed pajamas. So in I went. And this is what I saw:







Now, keep in mind, except for printing those pro-green messages on the clothes, there is absolutely no other indication that Gymboree gives a damn about the planet. In fact, there is every indication they don't. These aren't organic cotton clothes. These aren't recycled materials clothes. These aren't even Made in the USA clothes. These are Made in China clothes. Made, I'm guessing, in a traditional, polluting, nothing-green-about it, factory.

But wait. I saved the best for last. This shirt:

'Cause, you know, all the trendy Eco Warriors are wearing Gymboree this year.

Know any other Earth Day offenders? Let me know below!

All photos from Gymboree.com

Mother Earth to Oriental Trading: Don't Try to Friend Me on Facebook

EarthDay.org

I just got the most recent Oriental Trading catalogue - an affront to the earth itself - and found myself at first amused, and then utterly incensed on behalf of our Earth Mother that they are trying to sell item after item of disposable plastic (and paper) junk in honor of... EARTH DAY.

I have just one, simple question to ask Oriental Trading: Are you fucking kidding? Does Mother Earth want you to make more trash or less trash to honor her? Why would you celebrate earth day with plastic erasers, stickers and disposable banners printed with Earth Day 2011 that will clearly only be able to be used once? And more importantly, what marketing genius thought, hey maybe we can get all those save-the-earth idiots to buy paper plates if we just print Earth Day on them?

Among the worst Earth Day offerings from Oriental "not friends of the earth" Trading:

• Earth Day Latex Balloons, 'cause you don't need to be a junior ecologist to know balloons are totally awesome for the environment:

• Recycle Rubber Duckies, which I'm guessing can't even be recycled:

And last, but not least, the plastic, won't-last-five-minutes, Earth Springs:, because nothing says Earth Day like adding more useless crap to the landfill:

All this leaves me with the question... what on earth are we doing? Please tell me you know an organization celebrating Earth Day (April 22) the right way, and leave a shout out to them in the comments.


This post is recycled from Earth Day 2010 and updated to include the latest Earth Day product line extensions from OTC.

No trees were harmed in the writing of this blog post.