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Date
For some of us, the holiday season, by nature (excuse the pun), is about green. Not Kermit green, but evergreens and “mistletoe and holly” to quote a Christmas Carol. But it could go either way, sustainable or not, and if it goes not, it goes in a big way. Americans toss out an extra 25 million tons of trash over the holidays, largely due to packaging. I remember when I was young and it was all about the present count. Each present was gaily wrapped by one of Santa’s elves and mysteriously appeared in the on Christmas morning under the tree. The tree miraculously appeared with ornaments and lights just in time when my question of “Has Santa come?” was answered in the affirmative, usually in the wee hours of Christmas morning. Funny I never heard the sleigh. By the time all the presents were unwrapped; there was an enormous pile of colored paper. What to do with it? Usually, it went into gigantic black plastic “contractor’s” bags to be placed on the curb with all of our neighbors black plastic bags. I’ll bet some of that wrapping is still in a landfill somewhere. After all, there is virtually no degradation taking place in a landfill. Besides, the waste in landfills, the remnants of the wrapping paper can be a fire hazard. People almost burn their houses down by throwing too much of the paper in their fireplaces. Have you ever seen how that stuff burns?
And then there is that Christmas tree with all the lights and ornaments. When the lights went bad, they were thrown away, but the ornaments, now that was a different story. A lot of them are handed down from generation to generation to be unboxed and hung on the tree from year to year, reuse! At one time the trees were collected and used to fuel a huge bonfire to signal the end of the holiday season and to warm us while we watched. One of the best uses of discarded Christmas trees we’ve seen is that they are collected and ground up for mulch to be used in the spring on minicipal lands or made available to citizens for their gardens. Christmas trees are certainly a renewable, recyclable resource, just ask the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association http://www.virginiachristmastrees.org/facts.asp.
There are now alternatives to the traditional non-recyclable wrapping paper. Have a contest to see who can come up with the most sustainable wrap. It is amazing what people will come up with, especially if there is an incentive involved, like some homemade cookies for the winner. If you do buy paper, make sure it has the Sustainable Forest Initiative symbol. And, then do what my mother used to do, carefully unwrap the present to preserve the paper for another gift. Reuse again. Have another contest to see who can come up with the cleverest idea for ribbons and bows or other packaging decorations. Gift bags are also to be considered as they can be used again and again. Food as a package decoration is great, as long as it isn’t something perishable. Candy makes great decorations, especially the Christmas candies like candy canes and ribbons, very colorful.
I have a friend who sends a very simple Christmas card, but he hand ties a fishing fly that is included. Each year is a different fly. A hand tied fishing fly would be a great decoration for a simple package (just watch the hook). There are a lot more things to green up your holiday season. Just look on the Internet; LED lights for the tree to reduce energy usage, solar lights for the outside (a disappointment for Clark Griswold) to reduce energy usage to 0, and more. Not only is it fun to create ways to be more sustainable, but the results could drastically reduce that holiday waste. Now, if I could just do something about my holiday waist-line to keep myself more sustainable.
Posted
by
Dave Shirley
on: December 17, 2011 03:11 PM |
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