This story was produced in collaboration with CivicStory as part of the Ecology-Civics Reporting Project.  

HOBOKEN, NJ – “Sustainability” was the buzz word on the lips of Hobokenites at the annual Earth Day Celebration and Music Festival on April 26. 

With vendors lining the streets, eager to promote their eco-friendly goods and services and steady queues at each stall, the streets were reminiscent of a time before Amazon prime and online shopping and the likes, says Tracy Gavant, Co-Founder of Hoboken-based events company, Main Street Pops. 

According to Statista, it is projected that e-commerce plastic packaging use will continue to grow in the coming years, reaching an estimated 4.5 billion pounds by 2025.

Gavant and her fellow co-founders started the local celebration of Earth Day five years ago, with hopes of not only bringing the community together but also to highlight the small local businesses striving to go more green.

Hoboken’s position as New Jersey’s first ever LEED certified city, an accolade which acknowledges Hoboken’s commitment to sustainability and its efforts in areas like energy and water use, waste generation, transportation, and community development also spurred Gavant on to establish this celebration. 

Citing Hoboken’s famed resiliency parks, which act as flood deterrents by detaining millions of gallons of stormwater which could potentially flood Hoboken’s streets and the homes of its residents, Gavant says that the City “is an inspiration to other environmental stewards.” 

In fact, this week, Hoboken’s ‘Resiliencity Park’, New Jersey’s largest Resiliency Park, had five new stormwater pumps installed, which will allow approximately 30 million gallons of stormwater per day (or 20,000 gallons per minute) out of the storage tank to the Hudson River during a storm event.

“We’ve all been here through hurricane Sandy and we’ve experienced the effects of climate change firsthand, so how could we not act?” Gavant lamented, acknowledging that Hoboken’s position on the Hudson River leaves them more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. 

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, New Jersey is home to over 953,000 small businesses, which represents 99.6% of all businesses in the state. 

Gavant says that when curating the vendor list for Earth Day, she likes to keep it small, while thinking big, meaning that small and local businesses who are passionate about green practices are a priority.  

Reducing the amount of materials and products that are bought locally and not from national retail chains helps reduce your ecological footprint, according to a study conducted by Michigan State University. 

The MSU study states that this leads to less transportation, and less traffic congestion, which has the potential to reduce the amount of fuel emission that contributes to air pollution. This generally means contributing to less sprawl, congestion, wildlife, habitat loss and pollution.

“We love handmade, sustainable, and local products because it really does make it an exciting shopping experience without the guilt,” Gavant says.

One such small business owner is Doreen Catena, creator of Dordesign Sustainable Homegoods whose whole vision is “to take what was once waste and turn it into something functional and fabulous.” 

And she does so, with such ease, it would seem. 

Her stall is a cacophony of colors and sounds, but not in the way you think.  

Catena repurposes discarded highway billboards into one of a kind 100% recycled furniture pieces, including chairs, table mats and wall vinyls.

She also transforms old vinyl records into bowls by melting them to become malleable, she then uses the album cover to create jigsaw puzzles.

Reflecting on her 30 years as a graphic designer, she calls Dordesigns her ‘side hustle’, but also says it has become a way of life.

“I go to garage stores, thrift stores and flea markets as much as I can to gather materials to recycle, I really am just so passionate about it,” she told TAPinto Hoboken.

Billboards are made from woven nylon that is coated in vinyl, so they are fade and water resistant, which to Catena is important for her business’ sustainability practices, she says.

“The pieces are really built to last can be used indoors and outdoors and will look great for years to come, like the whole point is so the billboards don’t go to landfill, so the quality has to be good” Catena says. 

At another stall, a child is busily painting a large cardboard box with cutouts of the Earth on it. 

This is Hugs and Bugs Club, the brain child of Olivia Burks, who always wanted to provide early learning education in Hoboken through the lens of nature and exploration.

“I think that all  children are natural born scientists and they really are motivated to learn through exploration, investigation, discovering and solving problems in an organic way,” Burks says.  

On the subject of her business’ sustainability practices, Burks’ ethos is that such practices have to be passed down to the younger generation.

“We gather materials like newspapers, toilet paper rolls and cardboard boxes for our art, we try to limit our harmful waste and I think the kids will take that message with them as they get older.”

The children spend “as much time outside as possible”, Burks says, which enables them to grow an appreciation for the outdoors, which in turn instills a respect for nature and the Earth on the whole. 

One attendee of the celebration, Matt Lira, told TAPinto Hoboken that he had come out to “show pride for Hoboken and its progress”, because when he was growing up, he never could have imagined an Earth Day Celebration in the Mile Square City. 

Gavant says that with a year to go until the next Earth Day Celebration in Hoboken, her team will not be slowing down and will continue to strive for a more “climate conscious and caring city.” 

This story was produced in collaboration with CivicStory as part of the Ecology-Civics Reporting Project.  

 Co-published with TAPinto Hoboken.  

Alex Connell is a 2025 CivicStory Ecology-Civics reporting fellow and writes for TAPInto Hoboken.