Did you know that waste increases by 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day? That’s not really surprising when you start thinking about all the shopping, eating and traveling.
|
LIVEGREEN |
by Melanie Stewart |
Luckily, there are a lot of things you can do to reduce waste and have a happier, healthier holiday season. But you have to start planning now.
- Decorate with non-toxic items, and reuse as many items as you can. Remember, more is not always better.
- Recycle your old lights and get a credit you can use to buy new, more efficient LED lights.
- Reduce junk mail by contacting Catalog Choice to remove your name from marketers’ databases.
- If you are hosting, buy food in bulk to reduce packaging. Larger containers contain less material than individual serving sizes.
- Make it easy for guests to recycle. Recycle everything you can’t reuse.
- Reduce the focus on gifts and concentrate on the things that really matter — and that includes your sanity.
- If you exchange gifts:
- Consider buying experiences or donations instead of “stuff.”
- Consolidate your shopping trips to save gas.
- Take reusable bags.
- Consolidate online shopping to save on shipping.
- Look for products that contain non-toxic, responsibly sourced materials.
- Wrap gifts in reused materials. If every American household wrapped three gifts in reused materials, such as maps, Sunday comics or cloth bags, enough paper would be saved to cover 45,000 football fields! For everything else, use recycled content paper and reusable gift bags, boxes, and bows.
- Consider sending ecards, which saves trees, your time and your money. Recycle or reuse any cards you receive for decoration, future gift tags, or craft projects.
- If batteries are needed, buy rechargeable ones. This will save you money and trips to the store in the long run. Recycle single-use batteries at Batteries Plus.
- Instead of using chemically-scented candles:
- Burn soy or beeswax candles with essential oils.
- Let your cooking do the “talking.”
- Simmer some natural, homemade potpourri on the stove.
- Check your thermostat. More people and more cooking means the temperature can be lowered. Every two degrees lower saves $100 a year, as well as preventing the equivalent carbon emissions of driving a car 3,000 miles. Plus, people can get comfy in their (reused) ugly Christmas sweaters!
- If you didn’t buy a potted or artificial tree, recycle your tree when the season ends.
These are just the highlights. For more specifics, click here and here.