Today is meatless Monday. There is a new movement in Canada which you can find at www.meatlessmonday.ca, as a group of Canadians join the global movement. The idea is that by cutting out meat at least once a week, we will be making progress toward a better future.

How, you say? According to the Meatless Monday petition,

“Every time you eat a meal free of animal products, you save 2.5 lbs. of greenhouse gas emissions, 24 square feet of land, and 133 gallons of water. If you eat three meals a day, that totals 2,737.5 lbs. of greenhouse gas, 26,280 square feet of land and 145,635 gallons of water per year, plus more.”

Tonight we are having tomato soup with pasta. Here’s the recipe.

• 1. 5 t oil
• 2 medium carrots
• 2 garlic cloves
• 16 oz can tomato sauce (or make your own)
• 16 oz can diced tomatoes (or fresh diced)
• 1 small zucchini
• 1/2 t dried oregano
• 1/2 t dill
• 8 oz fresh pasta (my kids prefer tortillini)
• salt, pepper to taste
• Parmesan cheese for topping

Heat oil in soup pot. Add carrots and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic, and saute another 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, zucchini, oregano, dill, and 3 cups of water. Simmer covered for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Cook pasta separately, according to package instructions.

Stir cooked pasta into the soup and season with salt and pepper. Add the pasta and adjust spices or add water as needed. Serve, with Parmesan cheese. Add fresh bread and salad and you have yourself a meatless Monday meal.

I love books. Recently, I cleaned out my book shelf, spurred on by a move from one home to another home. How many books do I really need to keep? When I come across a book I want to read, I look for a copy at my local library. If they have it, I put it on hold and have them bring it to the nearest branch. I find it amazing what services our libraries offer these days. You should check out your local library if you haven’t gone in lately.

If it is a book that I will refer to time and time again, then I buy it. I can’t keep popping in to the library to look up facts or when I need a bit of inspiration. Some books just need to be purchased.

When I cleaned out my bookcase this summer, I gave away lots of the books. Some I just put outside on a sunny day and let people passing by browse and take what interested them. Some of them I donated to my local library.

Books for Exchange for textbooks that you need to buy or sell.

If a book is truly in such bad shape that it can’t be passed on or reused in some way, then take the cover off and recycle the paper. What you do with the cover will depend a lot on what it is made of.

Are you a magazine fan? If your magazine is available as an online subscription, then that is the best way to go. If not, when you are done with each issue, find a local doctor’s office, senior’s centre or other neighbourhood organization that would welcome magazine’s in their waiting room or library.

And finally, newspapers can also be read online and/or shared with others in the neighbourhood. Try to resist the each to pick up a free newspaper on your way to work, read an item or two on the way, and then dump it in the garbage when you arrive.

My eldest daughter walked into a thrift shop, walked out with a couple of dresses and a pair of red shoes, and transformed them into an amazing Dorothy costume for Halloween.  Then then transformed left over material into more incredibly creative projects. She doesn’t’ get her talent from me. She has, however, taught me that I should be taking my old clothes to my local thrift shop without worrying whether someone can use them. Just because I have no imagination or talent, doesn’t mean that no one will want them.

If it is work clothing that you have (cough, cough) ‘outgrown’ or preferably shrunk past, then look to see if there is a local organization that will accept them and then pass them on to someone facing a job interview without appropriate  apparel. Here are two programs that I am aware of.

Dress for Success for women

Working Gear for men - only in Vancouver at this time. Would love to know if there are more initiatives elsewhere in  Canada.

If you really, truly can’t imagine anyone getting any use out of your old clothing item, then consider using it for a cleaning rag. This saves running out and buying cleaning clothes, saves money, and puts old clothing to good use.  Another good use would be craft projects for kids. Large items such as sheets and towels could be made into a pet bed or donated to your local animal shelter.

Finally, check out the Canadian Textile Recycling Directory to find out where you can take the last of the last clothing items for recycling in Canada.

Have an old laptop or desktop lying around and you can’t imagine anyone would want ‘That old thing?’ Think again. There are several programs in Canada that divert computers for being shipped overseas to be ‘recycled’ by underpaid workers that come in contact with the mercury and other toxins, often without proper safety gear. Here are a few suggestions…

ReBOOT Canada
Reboot Canada refurbishes old computers and then redistributes them to charities, senior centres and high school students. You can also buy one directly from them if you need a better priced computer. reBOOT can be found in Toronto, Fredericton, Dartmouth, Peterborough and Vancouver.

Computers for Schools
Computers for Schools take old government and corporate  computers, refurbished them and then distributes them to our nations libraries, schools, and not-for-profit learning centres.

Free Geek
Free Geek Vancouver is an ethical computer recycling organization in Vancouver. Their mission is to  reduce the environmental impact of waste electronics by reusing and recycling donated technology.  They provide workshops, job skills training, Internet access and free or low cost computers to the public.

Little Geeks
Little Geeks is a Toronto operation that refurbishes old home computers and redistributes them to children in need. Although the only operate in Toronto, their dream is to expand throughout Canada and internationally. Their Mission is “to provide  free computing technology and education to children and families who cannot afford this resource on their own. ”

Take responsibility for your old technology and make sure it is not shipped overseas and ‘recycled’ into a useless shell that is dumped. It is far more efficient and economical to give it to one of the above organizations.

‘Waste not, want not’ was a common refrain from Helvi, a friend of my parents when I was young. Apparently, she had what is commonly referred to as ‘Elephant Man’s’ disease, but I don’t remember that. They said she rarely left the house because of people’s reaction to her, but I was young and had no expectations of her physically. I only remember her saying, ‘Waste not, want not.’ and slapping my hand when I fingered the cookies looking for the best one.

She was right, of course. Waste not, want not. She taught me an important lesson. This week is Waste Reduction Week and a good time to reflect on Helvi’s wisdom. So I challenge you to slow down this week and think about what you are using, what you are buying, what you are discarding.

Challenge yourself to use less: less electricity, less water, less paper, and much less packaging and disposable goods.

Each time you reach for your wallet think, “Do I really need this? Could I do without? Could I use something else? Is there a more sustainable option? Will this be in a landfill in the next six months, six weeks, six days?

When you put your foot on the pedal to open the garbage can, question why you are tossing this item into an already overburden landfill. Can you find another use for it? Can you give it away? Can you recycle it?

Every day this week, Ethical Consumer will help you with this challenge by suggesting ways to be less wasteful. We’d love to hear what you are doing to be less wasteful as well.

Did you know that the David Suzuki Foundation has recently started a book club? If you are interested in reading and discussing books that relate to our environment, here’s your chance. To get in on the action, you can sign up at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/BookClub/ The first book on the list is his very own, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature.

You can also get in on the action on the book club’s Facebook page.

This comes at an opportune time. Firstly, David Suzuki recently won the honourary Right Livelihood Award for his “for his lifetime advocacy of the socially responsible use of science, and for his massive contribution to raising awareness about the perils of climate change and building public support for policies to address it”. They call him one of the “most brilliant scientists… of his generation.”

Further, in December world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen for a UN climate summit. The David Suzuki Foundation has been working to make a difference by encouraging people to give world leaders a wake up call that we want change. Today there was a news conference attended by Tim Flannery an Dale Marshall. They both believe Canada should take a positive role and lead the fight. I agree.

It seems like everywhere you look, there’s plastic. Plastic bottles, plastic toys, plastic bags – there’s even a garbage patch of plastic bottles twice the size of Texas floating in the north Pacific Ocean (if that’s not a sign that we suck, I don’t know what is). It lines the shelves of all of our grocery stores, pharmacies, and big box operations. We seem to be obsessed with it, which strikes me as odd in a world trying to go green. I see many companies claiming to be eco-friendly or environmental with plastic packaging. This claim is a little hard to swallow. How does something that sits in a landfill for eons get an eco-friendly label?

• Plastic is a huge health concern. It leeches into products and exposes our bodies to hormone-disrupting chemicals like bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates, which may lead to breast cancer, prostate cancer and sexual development issues in babies.
• Contrary to popular belief and the “feel goods” we get when we throw a plastic bottle in the ol’ blue box, plastic does not get recycled – it gets downcycled, meaning it gets turned into a different product such as fabric or flooring. The demand for these secondary products is lower than our use of plastics so the majority (76%) of these bottles end up in the landfill after all – for hundreds to thousands of years.
• Plastic comes from petroleum, a dwindling non-renewable resource that has caused enormous amounts of conflict and environmental degradation all over the world.
• Plastic is polluting our oceans and destroying marine life by choking and trapping them. It is estimated that 100 million marine mammals and turtles in the north Pacific Ocean are killed every year by plastic – not to mention the plastic bottle island from hell.
• Plastic pollutes in every way imaginable, from depleting the ozone layer to changing DNA structure in cows. It’s evil.

The bottom line is that plastic is NOT eco-friendly – in fact it’s the opposite, it’s an eco-enemy (I just made that word up). Beware of greenwashers and the plastic industry convincing you otherwise. Do what you can to avoid it by toting reusable shopping bags, choosing products packaged in glass, drinking from stainless steel containers, and buying wooden toys (they look way better in your house anyway).  Also, if you catch anyone drinking bottled water, you should beat them.

Resources: sierraclub.org, greenpeace.org, ecologycenter.org, earth911.com

Jessica Burman is the owner of Canadian organic skin care company, Cocoon Apothecary (www.cocoonapothecary.com). She is an animal-loving, tree-hugging flower sniffer. She rants about the beauty industry in her blog Beauty Revolution (www.beautyrevolution.wordpress.com).

I love rummaging through closets and coming up with Halloween costumes. I love the costumes, the make up and the parties. Here are some ideas to add to your Halloween fun.

Window Decoration Crayons

Save paper and trees - decorate by drawing pumpkins and ghosts directly on the windows! Kids will love having such a big, unusual canvas. Great for mirrors too. Non-toxic. EAsy to wipe off. Pack of 10. Made in Germany.

Face Paint Pencils

Wood encased, bright colours. No water required. Non-toxic. Easy to wash off. Made in Germany. Choose from 2 different colour pacds, each contain 6 pencils. Basic pack: blue, yellow, red, green, white, black. Plus pack: pink, violet, gold, silver, brown, orange.

Plant-Based Body Paint

All natural, non-toxic. Ideal for lots of coverage, ie. white ghost, green withc, orange pumpken. Set of 7 paint pots in vivacious colours: yellow, blue, red, beige, green, white, black. Easy to apply and easy to remove with water.

Black Organic Cotton Leotard

And for dressing up your little one as the perfect black cat, etc. try black organic leotards and Canadian-made tutus.

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Helmet Covers

Dress up your red devil, lion, ladybug, pig, shark and more with a Canadian-made helmet cover (fits any sports helmet) that great for use all year round.