When I was growing up in the suburbs of New York, our first local Earth Day was organized around a drive to a town field where families were urged to empty items from their basements  for recycling rather than dropping them in the dustbin. It was an eye opening idea for a kid in 1970. But as an environmental reporter, I'm bored of the large amount of deals and promotions that arrive by email or in my office or home mailbox on Earth Day. Like Valentine's Day, Earth Day has become a huge marketing opportunity--a way to promote consumption. In fact, Earth Day is such a good sales opportunity that some shops, like Target, have expanded Earth Day into Earth Month. There isn't time to give you a variety of the Earth Day shopping opportunities I was informed of this past week. They included deals on buying bottled water and earth-friendly wipes. My award for the silliest promotion: a plan to gift 25 of the most environmentally conscious stars with unique, useful and "green" products and services, including skin care products, cheese-cake and artwork. My guess is most of the stuff will end up in celebrities' garbage. Is buying and selling a good way to celebrate and protect the environment? I would argue that Earth Day might be an occasion to consider giving up purchases or habits that are environmentally questionable or that we could happily do without. How about not buying bottled water, but refilling a water bottle? How about not buying foods--even "organic" foods--that are packed in non-recyclable plastic? Don't get me wrong. The company of Bridgestone is celebrating Earth Day by promising to repurpose a spent tire for every tire that it sells. Verizon will plant a tree for each cell phone you trade in. Some coffee stores will even refill reusable cups at no charge. Target is giving out free reusable carrier bags without requiring a purchase. But few shopkeepers are taking the next step-charging a fee at the cash register for disposable plastic bags, a common practice in Europe-to encourage customers to use those new reusable carriers. Earth Day is transient . If you only showed love on Valentine's Day, would that really mean anything at all? The author's first local Earth Day was celebrated by   _  .
driving to the town field emptying waste for recycling looking for good ideas for reuse clearing items from their basements