Green Up Your Holidays
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Green Up Your Holidays
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, an extra five million tons of waste are generated in the United States because of holiday celebrations and gift giving, according to estimates from the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Along with the paper waste, 38,000 miles of ribbon are thrown out each year—enough to tie a bow around the Earth. According to California-based Recycle Works, the 2.65 billion cards sold in the United States during the holiday season could fill a football field ten stories high, and they require the harvesting of nearly 300,000 trees.
How can you help prevent such waste this season? Here are some small steps that make a big difference:
* Give "zero-waste" gifts, such as a donation to a charity or a massage gift certificate.
* Search garage sales and thrift stores for interesting containers that can be used as gift boxes. For example, use an old hat box or wine crate.
* Turn your leftover brown paper bags into your own wrapping paper.
* Reuse old paper, or wrap with a time-tested favorite—the funny pages.
* Forgo gift tags or repurpose old ones. Nothing brings back memories like a tag you made when you were 5.
* If you must have new paper, buy recycled-content paper, and be sure to recycle your used paper after the holidays.
