Celebrate Earth Day 2012 with Evolved Novelties and Edenfantasys! Evolved Novelties and Edenfantasys have teamed together in support of Plantabillion.org for Earth Day this year. For every Evolved toy purchased between today, April 13th through Monday April 23rd, Eden and Evolved will donate one tree to the cause. Click here to find out more information on joining the cause! Oh and look at that---all Evolved toys are 25% off!What steps do you take to reduce your footprints when it comes to protecting the planet? less

All of the above, except for having a fuel efficient car. I used to be a recycle attendant in my county actually, and have been recycling all my life. This one toy, one tree thing is great!!! Terrific! Kudos to EF for doing this and kudos to the writer of this poll! less

I am all for events like these, but doesn't it all kind of defeat the purpose???

I am all for planting trees for each Evolved Novelty item sold... but how many items does one really need that does not take batteries?

I know for me, I have been trying to avoid buying toys that require batteries and have even made the decision to try to stop using them altogether. But with Evolved toys, they all take batteries. And yes, they do have some other items that could be purchased... and I do apologise if it seems I am on a rant here, but if they want to be considered to be doing something that is good for the environment, shouldn't they be attempting to fix this one issue?

I take the number 11 bus everywhere I can (Chinese joke... I walk), I've encouraged the school to teach the students that to make the cleaning staff's job easier to separate rubbish, working with the campus restaurants to incorporate deals for take out using our own containers rather than plastic bags or Styrofoam containers. I've worked on student programs to clean up the city, and worked with student programs to try to clean up the dumping into rivers and hopefully one day to stop it altogether.

In my personal life, I have tried to reduce my garbage output by not buying items in packages and sticking to foods that do not require packaging like fruits and veggies and buying them direct from the farmer. I have also tried to limit my rubbish to less than 1kg per week. Which my maid loves and thinks is hilarious. All my recycling she gets to keep and sell to the recycling plant. I try to reuse everything until it is no longer able to be reused. less

Two words: Rechargeable batteries.

I take the number 11 bus everywhere I can (Chinese joke... I walk), I've encouraged the school to teach the students that to make the cleaning staff's job easier to separate rubbish, working with the campus restaurants to incorporate deals for take out using our own containers rather than plastic bags or Styrofoam containers. I've worked on student programs to clean up the city, and worked with student programs to try to clean up the dumping into rivers and hopefully one day to stop it altogether.

Wow!! That's amazing, especially considering where you are, that cannot be an easy feat to accomplish. Do you ever run into any resistance from the "powers that be"? less

Depends on what you consider the "PTB".

Yes and no. I actually just had this conversation with my assistant today over dinner.

The PTB's here are two faced, they say one thing and do another. Corruption is a terrible thing, but companies don't want to have their emissions or waste checked because it costs way too much money to go greener than they already have.

In some ways I do agree with them, but how they go about to work around the problem I very much disagree with.

The PTB's have to look like they are encouraging what I have initiated, but in reality they just get a grand chuckle out of it all. Companies who have higher than should be emissions and dumping hazardous waste into the ground pay off the PTB's. And if the PTB's don't look like they are trying to be strict with the companies, they can get into a whole whack of trouble.

It is a fine line everyone has to walk, and the worst part of it all, I do not care if I topple the fine balance if it was just me. But it is not just me. So I too have to play the "game" with the PTB's, only they hate the fact that I play it well and I am ruthlessly honest about it. Think climbing up a mountain of sand. For every centimetre you climb up, you must first try to climb two metres. It's not easy, there has been progress, there is more community involvement than there was a few years ago, and I have been able to step back and get out of sight to let others take all the credit and I can go back to being the puppetmaster once again.

If I could live in the monsoon climate again, I'd go south to one of the cities where they produce MSG and batteries and work there trying pull the strings to get the city to clean up, but... I so cannot live in a place where it is a wet cold again.

And... our rechargeable batteries here are a wee bit too big and do not fit into any of the toys I have that take batteries. less

Oh that does sound like quite the tricky situation! Thank you for being as candid as you were, it's such a different way of living. I can only imagine what it's like.

I thought we carried rechargeable batteries, but a quick search tells me we don't. I'll have to look into that. less

LOL!!! That would be great!!! But it would really only work for those in North America for the plug ins, unless they can be plugged in universally.

Sometimes it is a pain in the neck living here, but more often than not? It is a one woman comedy audience show. less