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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Recycle at Halloween. If you can't reuse something, dont just throw it away! 

Once Halloween is over, recycle your pumpkins, the straw you used to build scarecrows and any other organic material by composting it. The compost can be used as fertilizer for your garden.

Lay your pumpkin to rest with love and dignity - bury or compost the pumpkin carcass or give to the worms or guinea pigs as a Halloween treat.

Make use of all pumpkin parts.

After carving a pumpkin, make sure to save the seeds. Bake them and serve them to party guests or feed them to our fine feathered friends, the birds.

There's no problem putting pumpkin seeds out for birds, wet or dry, confirms Dr. Ellen Dierenfeld, a nutritionist at the Saint Louis Zoo, which accepts pumpkin donations after Halloween to feed to the animals as a seasonal treat.

Reuse Halloween decorations and costumes. Many of the Halloween decorations around the house can be easily kept and reused next year (a few small changes will make sure they actually look quite different). Think of it as recycling.

Put leftover food scraps in a worm farm. As pointed out earlier, worms will eat just about anything. Including pumpkin.

Place a recycle bin in close proximity to the kitchen trash area and label the recycle bin with colorful pictures of items the children normally use that can be recycled. Things like juice boxes and cereal boxes can be easily drawn into colorful photographs to encourage children to recycle.

Take your recycling materials to a local school or library with a recycling bin. Schools and libraries are paid for the material they recycle. The money they earn goes to providing better services at these facilities (more books, renovations, student trips, etc.). If you don’t have curbside recycling.

Story books are a great way to help children understand their role in the environment, but which stories on recycling are best? 

Recycle! A Handbook for Kids by Gail Gibbons Author

This book does a wonderful job explaining exactly how an item gets recycled. Its thought provoking and entertaining. The illustrations are wonderful.

Discussing paper, plastic, glass, cans, and polystyrene, the author describes how to recycle, why it's necessary, and its benefits. The captioned panels and running text stress the need for reducing waste and saving natural resources. The book ends with a mention of the ozone layer and the limited potential for recycling polystyrene, followed by 14 facts about garbage.

Where Does the Garbage Go? Revised Edition (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)by Paul Showers Author, Randy Chewning Illustrator

Trash doesn't just disappear after the garbage truck takes it away. So where does it go? In this book young readers follow the garbage truck to the landfill and the incinerator and then visit the recycling center to see how glass, metal, paper, and plastic are recycled.

This information-packed book is perfect for budding environmentalists. Full color.

Recycle Every Day by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace Author

A bunny named Minna has a school assignment to make a poster about recycling.

Sir Johnny's Recycling Adventure by Rachael Peterpaul Paulson Author

"There once was a boy named Johnny, who loved everything about the Earth..."

The second book in Paulson's Hands on the World Environmental Series brings full circle the recycling process that was introduced in Johnny and the Old Oak Tree. In Sir Johnny's Recycling Adventure, the old oak teaches Johnny the importance of closing the recycling loop by purchasing products which are made from or packaged in recycled material. Once again, the author captures the imagination and enthusiasm of a child enjoying the outdoors.

Johnny is that child, and he sees himself doing battle with the giant trash monster. His best friend, the old oak tree helps him to understand that saving the environment is much easier than fencing with a fire-breathing garbage dragon. Johnny learns that we can all help by participating in each phase of recycling: reduce, reuse, recycle AND look for recycled products and packaging when shopping.

At the back of this book, Paulson includes several pages of take-action activities and recycling resources designed to inspire people of all ages to make a difference.

Waste and Recycling Green Team by Sally Hewitt Author

In Waste and Recycling, Green Team members learn how important it is to recycle and send as little garbage to the landfill as possible.

50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth by The EarthWorks Group Author

This valuable and entertaining book shows children how specific elements of their environment. Clear, practical tips show kids how they can conserve energy, recycle waste, and take on important environmental projects.