Halloween Candies and Costumes

Happy Halloween from all of us here at EcoSmart Products!

My son says he can’t wait to get some ‘Toxic Waste’ candies in his loot tonight. In case you’re not familiar with this candy, it is the self-proclamed only sour candy strong enough to be officially proclaimed HAZARDOUS and it comes in a container shaped like an overflowing drum of Toxic Waste. Is this irony? Tongue-in-cheek? Or just a new wave of brutally honest advertising?

While on the topic of irony and toxic waste,  did anyone else catch the Toxies, a spoof awards show in June that awards harmful chemicals (actors dressed up to represent their toxin) with awards? Toluene, Xylene, BPA, Mercury… they were all there.

I thought that would be a fun Halloween costume for my 3 boys. My pitch was a little weak, so they went a different route, opting for normal costumes… and toxic waste candies!

Easy Tips to Green Your Halloween

Halloween should be scary for the right reasons. But the waste generated by this celebration is altogether a different cause for fright. The store-bought costumes, individually wrapped treats, toxic glow sticks and spider web sprays, and disposable decorations made of plastic and vinyl, to name a few Halloween staples, make this holiday a landfill’s nightmare!  Here are a few easy tips to green your Halloween so you can reduce waste, protect your child’s health with non-toxic products, and leave a less spooky ecological footprint.

1.  Make a costume and win big for creativity and uniqueness

Many store-bought costumes are made with heavily-processed materials and plastics, and are often only worn for one night. Vinyl (a.k.a.the poison plastic) is often incorporated into store bought costumes. Instead, try brainstorming for ways to create a costume from homemade materials. This will also allow for a more creative character and costume such as a vampire jack-in-the-box, a ‘random’ character, or a tooth fairy ghost. The imagination can run wild with scissors, fabric and a cardboard box!

2.  Choose candies that are healthier and/or wrapped in recyclable or biodegradeable packaging

There’s little doubt that the Halloween garbage pile of wrappers, chip bags and plastics has not evolved much through the decades, despite our growing green conscience. To reduce your part in this year’s Halloween waste pile, try finding treats, such as Smarties, that are packaged in cardboard or other recyclable materials. Or, if you would prefer to skip the treats altogether, why not offer your trick-or-treaters a treasure? Stickers, international coins, gemstones, sea shells, hockey cards, tattoos, colored dice, or other small items may prove to be a novelty, and solve the packaging problem.

If you are a traditionalist and still want to offer candies, there are several healthier choices on the market (not including the aptly named, Toxic Waste candies!). Look for candies that are organic or that are sweetened with fruit juice and have no preservatives, such as fruit strips and rolls, organic crispy rice bars, other healthy snack bars, honey sticks or sesame snaps.

3.  Use non-toxic products for make-up and hairsprays

To avoid the heavy metals or other harmful ingredients that can be found in Halloween make-up, try making your own face paints and hair dyes. Kool Aid crystals will do a nice job of temporarily streaking hair bright colors, no toxic spray needed!

As for face paints and fake blood, check caelusgreenroom.com for their easy recipe suggestions. A bit of cornstarch, food coloring, corn syrup and liquid dish soap is all you will need to transform your little ones into a princess or pirate.

4.  Use natural decorations

Dollar store decorations literally litter the neighborhoods of North America on Halloween night. For a more natural exterior décor, consider decorating with nature. Haystacks, dried corn arrangements, cornstalks, scarecrows, and of course jack-o-lanterns make an enticing Halloween outdoor décor. For a spooky interior, try a black light, black gauze or cheesecloth webbing, and some downloaded Halloween tracks. A cackle or two wouldn’t hurt either.

5.  Stay safe without the glow sticks

The need to be seen on the streets after dusk has given rise to wasteful disposable glow sticks. This year, opt for reflector tape that can be re-used again and again, and hand-cranked or solar-powered flashlights.

A few conscious choices to use non-toxic and less wasteful products this Halloween can really help celebrate the things that go bump in the night without adding more to this already high impact holiday.

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EcoSmart Products is the North American distributor of AusPen non-toxic, refillable markers: eliminating toxins, reducing waste and saving money associated with dry-erase markers. http://www.ecosmartworld.com

Mabel’s Labels for Refillable Markers

Labels are not always a good thing, as anyone typecast as a nerd, jock, or dizzy blonde might tell you.

But Mabel’s Labels, the company that has found its niche market in kids who loose stuff, has made nifty labels for everything from clothes to lunchboxes to pencils and erasers. I even read on my twitter account yesterday that a good samaritan had returned a lost BlackBerry to its owner thanks to its Mabel’s Label!  Clearly, it’s not just kids who loose things (please, please tell me that the BlackBerry did not belong to a kid…)

At EcoSmart Products, we are excited to join forces with Mabel’s Labels and propose a solution for everyone who has purchased refillable markers and would like to label them as such. This could be a great solution for conference spaces or classrooms in which the markers may be used by those who are unfamiliar with them. We have found the Classic Skinny Mini Labels to be both durable and cute! 

Here we have shown our AusPen markers labelled, ‘I’m Refillable!’ and ‘Don’t throw me out!’ You could easily label them with:

• A conference room or classroom number
• Your name
• Instructions such as, ‘Inks in Staff Room’ or ‘Refill at Reception”
• A message that reinforces your choice in AusPen markers, like: “I’m Green!” or “I’m Non-Toxic” or “I Save Waste!”

To order a set of labels for your markers, visit Mabel’s Labels and check out the Classic Skinny-Minis ($18.50 for 80 labels). So, go ahead and label away!

Drawing Forth Inspiration on World Teacher Day

The word, ‘educate’ comes from the verb educe, which means “to draw forth from within.”

Who can’t remember at least one teacher that drew out their best? The act of inspiring, then, is not so  much about putting ideas or information into someone, so much as it is about helping that person draw forth from within. This is the stuff of motivation, passion, determination, insight and orientation.

For me, it was Mrs MacIntosh, grade 11 & 12 English. She used to stutter when explaining Shakespeare or Chaucer, not because she had a speech impediment, but because she was so excited by the prose, that it tripped up her speech. She also encouraged us to consider reading a novel or piece of literature more than once. “If someone offered you a piece of chocolate, would you say, ‘No, I’ve tasted that before?’”

To Mrs MacIntosh and all other dedicated teachers, especially our AusPen customers: Happy World Teacher Day, and thank you for drawing forth the best in us. 

Join our Facebook discussion: What did a teacher say or do that inspired you?

Words Worth Wordles

If you love words as much as I do (and I know you do because, well, you’re on a website for refillable markers!) you’ll love the ability for Wordle to whip up your favorite words into a ‘word cloud’. Check out the amazing Wordle as a tool for your school or office. Word clouds could be used as a presentation title page, a poetry assignment, a mission statement… I could make these all day. I really haven’t, but I could.

Here is our EcoSmart Products Wordle of the day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have any of your own Wordles or would like to make an AusPen Wordle to share with us? Pass it along; we’d love to see it: info@ecosmartworld.com

October AusPen Giveaway Draw!

AusPen Giveaways

Where it pays to go green

 Welcome to EcoSmart’s giveaway program where your “Green” stories can get you great free eco-friendly products.  Each month we choose a theme, welcome your input, and have an AusPen draw, ranging each month from AusPen starter kits, to marker packs to accessories.

October Theme:  The Flow of Ink.

What do you use dry-erase markers for?

For centuries, reed or quill pens were made from bamboo grasses or birds’ feathers and dipped in ink (a mixture of iron-salts, nutgalls and gum). It is said that the scratching sound of the reed pen on paper would create a pitch and resonance that accompanied the written words, like music accompanies lyrics. 

Did you know that even quill pens were highly disposable, just like many of today’s regular dry-erase markers? After about one week, a quill pen had to be discarded. Not so with AusPen refillable dry-erase markers…

The theme of this month’s AusPen giveaway draw is the flow of ink: what do you use dry-erase markers for? What do you express with your dry-erase markers? Are you teaching math concepts, art lessons, or brainstorming in the boardroom? If you are using refillable markers, what does the ability to refill your marker ink mean to you? Drop us a line and you’ll be automatically entered in our draw to win AusPen eco-friendly markers.

There are two ways to automatically enter this draw: 1. Leave a comment below or 2. Email us (info@ecosmartworld.com) and you will be automatically entered into a draw for AusPen giveaways!

 Photo courtesy of About.com: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa100197.htm

Please note some portion of your submission may be used by EcoSmart Products in promotional material.