Anywho, I've been thinking about Christmas. Christmas is lovely, what with the presents, friends, family and eating. Oh, the eating. However, this amazing holiday does have a dark side: the incredible amount of waste that results from our festivities. As someone who has gone as far as putting bubblewrap on her windows to add to the insulating value of her house, I find all the wastefulness a little disturbing.
There are many ways to lower your environmental impact this Yuletide. Here's a not-very-comprehensive list of more fun ways to reduce your holiday waste this year:
1. Don't mail Christmas cards. I like the idea of getting a card in the mail. It's very cheerful. But it's a huge use of paper, not to mention fuel for transportation and a stamp. And stamps are like, what, $60,000 each these days? Why not save a little money and some trees to boot by emailing cards instead. Someecards have some pretty... nontraditional... ones to help spread that holiday cheer (or a lawsuit, depending on which card you choose).
2. Have a Wrap Party. I don't know about you, but by the end of the season I end up with 6 feet of random, brightly colored scraps of wrapping paper that I can't use . I have a theory that it's related to the gnomes that steal random socks and sprinkle pennies all over, but that's neither here nor there. A great solution to this is to have a Most Festive Wrapping Party. The benefits include being able to exchange scraps of wrapping paper so as to cut down waste, add variety to your present display and, of course, sneak a peek at what people are giving you so you have time to drop obvious hints of how acceptable said gift may or may not be. Win-win-win!
3. Shred used wrapping paper. Why waste valuable bubblewrap on protecting fragile items when you could just reuse shiny, colorful paper? That way Auntie Muriel's incredibly ugly vase won't feel so dejected when you pack it away for future use since you "have no room for it anywhere." Besides, that bubblewrap could be insulating your windows!
4. Have a white elephant gift exchange. Gift the gift that keeps on giving: an used gift from last year! Just because you think that cookie tray is twelve kinds of too fancy for your house doesn't mean your best friend does.
If you're feeling really ambitious, start looking into ways to cut back in other areas. Saving the world is always a good New Year's resolution. There are a lot of ways to do so: start a compost. Use more public transportation. Recycle everything you can (plastic bags, bottles, printer ink, the broken shards of Auntie Muriel's vase that you 'accidentally' dropped).
Not to mention Santa is watching you. I'm pretty sure the actual lyrics to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is Don't toss that out/You better not try/Recycling's hot/I'm telling you why!/Santa Claus is makingenvironmentallyfriendly your town!
:)
ReplyDeleteLove!