Between Thanksgiving and New Yr’s Day, the quantity of family rubbish in the US will increase by 25 %, from 4 million tons to 5 million tons, together with present wrapping and product packaging. We additionally use extra electrical energy simply on vacation lights than some international locations use in a whole 12 months! All this waste is absolutely pointless.
Listed here are twelve eco-friendly vacation ideas that will help you scale back your environmental footprint this vacation season.
1. Make Your Personal Wrapping Paper (or Go With out)
Earth911 estimates that roughly 4.6 million kilos of wrapping paper is produced within the U.S. annually, and that about 2.3 million pounds—about half of it—ends up in landfills. And on prime of all that, most wrapping paper and ribbon is produced in Asian sweatshops, and shipped from 1000’s of miles away, giving wrapping paper a fairly heavy environmental footprint!
A typical mistake many individuals make across the holidays is placing all their wrapping paper, tissue, ribbons, and many others. into the recycling bin. Sadly, in case your wrapping paper is metallic, has foil or glitter decorations on it, or has a texture to it, it isn’t recyclable. Together with it in your recycling bin with different paper merchandise might make a whole load unrecyclable.
What a disgrace a lot water, oil and timber are wasted yearly solely to provide one thing that exists solely for use as soon as, torn off after which thrown within the rubbish. As an alternative of store-bought wrapping paper, get artistic and take a look at:
- white or brown craft paper (Have your youngsters beautify it for a private contact!)
- outdated maps
- the comics part of your native newspaper
- a fairly scarf or bandana, furoshiki-style
- a helpful fabric merchandise that may be a present in and of itself
- recycled fabric baggage from Amazon or different retailers
You possibly can even go with out wrapping your items altogether. A Small Footprint Family Facebook fan lately informed me that at her dwelling, she hides all of the unwrapped presents round the home, and holds a vacation scavenger hunt for the youngsters to seek out them. What a enjoyable, intelligent, low-waste thought!
However for those who should purchase wrapping paper, Wrappily provides beautiful vacation wrapping papers created from 100% recyclable and compostable newsprint. It’s also possible to get vacation playing cards (and different playing cards, too!) created from 100% recycled paper at Paper Culture.
2. Purchase Power-Saving LED Vacation Lights
Due to know-how, now you can beautify your home with LED lights that use 80 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights, which can drastically scale back your vacation electrical energy invoice for those who’re working a number of strands of lights for a number of hours a day. (Add a timer, and also you’ll save much more!)
Not solely do LED vacation lights price pennies to run in comparison with incandescent vacation lights, in addition they have the next benefits:
- LEDs are a lot cooler than incandescent lights, decreasing the chance of fireside or burnt fingers. Not like incandescents, they get extra environment friendly as temperatures drop.
- LEDs are made with epoxy lenses, not glass, that are far more proof against breakage. With care, LED vacation lights can final for as many as 50,000 hours of use. And when one bulb does exit, the remainder of the string stays lit!
- Not like incandescent vacation lights, you may usually join as much as 25 strings of LED lights end-to-end with out overloading a wall socket. And since LEDs use a lot much less energy than filament lights, there are varieties that may be run on batteries or small photo voltaic panels, saving you much more cash.
In line with the U.S. Department of Energy, if everybody changed their typical vacation gentle strings with LEDs, the power price financial savings can be $850 million annually, and 9.9 billion kilos of annual greenhouse fuel emission can be prevented. The financial savings can be equal to the emissions from 940,000 automobiles!
LED lights are reasonably priced and accessible online and at many main retailers. And, for those who put your lights on a timer, it can save you much more cash!
Why Are Lead and PVC Utilized in String Lights?
Each lead and PVC are utilized in virtually all string lights (LED and incandescent) to insulate the wiring, retard fires and reduce the cracking and disintegrating that comes with age. String lights also can comprise antimony, arsenic or cadmium as insulators and hearth retardants, too—all poisonous heavy metals you don’t wish to contact or inhale.
Whereas these toxins are not possible to thoroughly keep away from, you can discover much less poisonous string lights. Search for string lights which are RoHS compliant and free from Prop 65 warning labels.
As a way to be RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) compliant, a product has to have lower than 1000 ppm (.1%) of lead in it. RoHS compliant lights should even have low ranges of cadmium, mercury and phthalates. So though RoHS compliant lights usually are not fully lead- and toxin-free, they often are a lot safer in comparison with different, non-RoHS manufacturers.
When you can’t discover RoHS compliant, low-toxin lights, make sure to maintain your string lights away from kids and pets, put on gloves, and wash your palms totally after putting in them.
3. Add Natural & Native Meals to Your Vacation Feast
Make your vacation feast much more vibrant by supporting local household farmers and meals producers who sustainably produce meat, greens and seasonal treats in your space.
An area, sustainably farmed roast or ham is a lot better for the setting than manufacturing unit farm meat produced 1,000 miles away. Not solely does native, natural meals style higher, however you’ll even be doing all your half to your group and the planet too.
Here’s where to find an organic turkey or humane ham and local vegetables to your vacation dinner.
4. Get a Chemical-Free Tree
As individuals study extra about residing inexperienced and wholesome, demand is on the rise for Christmas timber that aren’t lined in chemical compounds. Right here’s what you’ll want to know:
Dwell Christmas Bushes
Studies have shown that lower or potted dwell timber are a a lot greener selection than a man-made tree. Dwelling Christmas timber present wildlife habitat, protect soil, moderate floods and drought, filter air and sequester carbon whereas they develop, which takes 6-8 years. Tree farms additionally present native jobs and good livelihood in rural communities.
However sadly, some growers can use as much as 40 totally different pesticides, in addition to chemical colorants on their timber! The excellent news is that there at the moment are quite a lot of tree-farms that promote pesticide-free timber, so ask your native Christmas tree vendor, or search for an organic tree farm close to you.
The most eco-friendly vacation tree choice is a potted, native tree you can plant after the vacation season. You’ll find dwell, potted Christmas timber in any native nursery in your space. In California, New York, and the United Kingdom, you may even hire a potted Christmas tree, and they’ll deal with it for you between seasons!
If getting a potted tree will not be doable, scale back your carbon footprint by buying a regionally grown lower tree, and ensuring it will get mulched or in any other case recycled—fairly than put into the landfill—when the vacation is over.
Synthetic Christmas Bushes
Synthetic timber can final a few years if nicely cared for, which appears to make them a extra sustainable selection, however they do have some very important drawbacks. For instance, you would need to maintain your plastic Christmas tree for a minimum of 10 years for it to have the identical carbon impression as utilizing an actual tree annually.
Synthetic timber additionally pose an enormous hazard to the setting, to employees and to customers. Plastic Christmas timber are made largely of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a non-renewable petroleum product. As well as, giant quantities of fossil fuels are required to fabricate and transport the plastic timber (often from Asia), including extra greenhouse gases to the environment.
PVC additionally comprises phthalates, which accumulate in physique tissues, and are linked to liver, lung and reproductive organ harm in mammals. Poisonous heavy metals like lead, cadmium and tin are usually used within the manufacturing of PVC, and also can result in environmental and health-related issues together with nervous system harm, notably in kids.
As a result of synthetic timber are flammable, many corporations additionally apply flame retardants to them, which might trigger reproductive toxicity, neurological toxicity, endocrine disruption, and most cancers. In truth, there are such a lot of toxins in synthetic Christmas timber, that the labels warn you to keep away from inhaling or touching any mud which will fall from the branches!
Synthetic timber can’t be recycled on the finish of their life, in order that they should be landfilled or incinerated. Within the landfill, the non-biodegradable supplies don’t actually ever break down, whereas incineration causes plastics akin to PVC to launch dioxins and different carcinogens into the air.
So, for those who do select a man-made tree, ensure you take excellent care of it so you need to use it for a minimum of 10 years, and make sure to deal with it fastidiously to keep away from being uncovered to its poisonous mud.
You may additionally take into account various timber, like book trees, wine bottle trees, or trees made from ornaments or lights.
5. Recycle Your Christmas Tree
Annually, 10 million lower Christmas timber find yourself within the landfill, the place they produce methane, a potent greenhouse fuel.
When you can’t chip your tree into mulch, lower it into firewood, use it in crafts, compost it, or feed it to your goats, you can nonetheless recycle your tree.
Over 4,000 U.S. cities alone supply packages to recycle your tree into mulch or wooden chips. Some cities even use your outdated timber to do essential environmental tasks like streambank or dune stabilization. In some cities, you may even donate your tree to the zoo to feed the animals there.
Go to the National Christmas Tree Association or Earth911 to discover a Christmas tree recycling program close to you.
6. Recycle Your Outdated Cellphone or Pill
Getting a brand new cellular phone or pill for the vacations? Undecided what to do with the outdated one? Annually, 130 million cell telephones are thrown out, weighing roughly 65,000 tons. Recycling your outdated cellphone prevents hazardous components like mercury, cadmium and lead from ending up in our landfills.
Now, you may drop off that outdated cellphone or pill at any Staples retailer, take it to your native e-waste recycling middle, ship it to BigSky Recycling, or presumably commerce it in together with your cellphone service or one of many many buyback programs on-line.
7. Offset Your Vacation Journey
When you or your family members are touring greater than 100 miles this vacation season, attempt to scale back air journey every time doable, and take into account offsetting the fossil gas air pollution generated by your journey, irrespective of the way you journey. These corporations may help you get timber planted to cut back your impression.
- Terrapass – Supplies carbon offsets for flying, driving, and many others.
- CarbonFund – Supplies quite a lot of carbon offset tasks to select from.
- Sustainable Travel – Supplies quite a lot of methods to offset carbon emissions
It’s also possible to scale back your air journey footprint by flying like a N.E.R.D. When reserving your flight, select:
- New. Newer plane just like the A320neo or Boeing 787-8 have 15% much less gas burn than older designs.
- Economic system. Extra seats, and fewer unfilled seats, means decrease gas burn per passenger.
- Common. Regional jets and really giant plane with 4 engines are gas intensive. Common, medium-sized jets are typically extra gas environment friendly.
- Direct. Fly direct, with out layovers, the place doable to cut back gas burn on account of circuitous routes.
8. Donate Your Time or Cash to an Environmental Trigger
Get into the vacation spirit by volunteering! There are numerous methods to assist enhance your group—and the planet—from cleansing up an area river to serving to inside metropolis youngsters expertise the outside for the primary time.
Organizations and charities all around the nation want your time and/or your cash to make a distinction, so you may have an incredible impression for a small quantity of effort.
Listed here are my three favourite environmental charities to donate to in the course of the vacation season:
- OneTreePlanted – One Tree Planted is a non-profit that allows people, companies and colleges to assist with reforestation tasks all around the world. They use your donation to empower native communities to develop and plant the saplings wanted to restore forests after fires and floods, create jobs, construct communities, and defend habitat for wildlife.
- Charity:Water – charity: water is a non-profit group that brings clear and protected consuming water to the 785 million individuals worldwide that lack primary entry to it. 100% of public donations go on to fund clear water tasks.
- Savory Institute – The Savory Institute teaches Holistic Deliberate Grazing to farmers, ranchers, and pastoralist communities throughout the globe as a way to facilitate large-scale regeneration of the world’s prairies and grasslands via biomimicry and holistic administration.
9. Make Handcrafts & DIY Items
There are such a lot of methods to cut back your consumption impression when giving vacation items. DIY items may be as a lot enjoyable to make and provides as to obtain. There are tons of concepts on Pinterest, however you might be actually solely restricted by your creativeness.
Some selfmade present concepts embrace:
10. Give Experiential Items
One of the memorable items to offer is the present of an expertise. By giving items that may be skilled, you may decrease wrapping and buying, and nonetheless give them one thing they’ll always remember.
Something that enables your beloved to spend high quality time experiencing one thing enjoyable, new or attention-grabbing will make a present certain to be cherished for years to come back.
Some concepts for experiential items:
- tickets to a ball sport, play or live performance
- a visit someplace attention-grabbing
- a 12 months of zoo or museum membership
- passes to an area theme or water-park
- classes, lessons or a workshop
- a bucket-list expertise, like sky-diving or whale watching
- a particular selfmade meal, therapeutic massage or “spa day” with you
Experiential items are extremely private, and are sometimes finest loved when shared between each the giver and the receiver, so you may construct lasting reminiscences collectively.
11. Buy Eco-Pleasant & Regionally Made Items
When you select to buy retail items, select merchandise that are available in minimal packaging, are created from sustainable supplies, and may be simply recycled. It’s also possible to select items that assist individuals dwell extra sustainably, like a compost bin or a reusable water bottle.
Associated: 24 Unique Gifts for Gardeners
Store Native
Now greater than ever, it’s essential to assist your native small companies and retailers by purchasing for items in your hometown. This helps your native Major Road to outlive, and offers native jobs. When you’re unsure what to get, buy present certificates from space outlets, eating places and meals purveyors.
Each time you may, attempt to consolidate journeys so you utilize much less fuel throughout your vacation buying.
Eco-Pleasant On-line Procuring
On-line buying reduces the period of time you spend driving your automobile, however the carbon footprint from transporting all these purchases may be excessive. As well as, the packaging may be an infinite waste.
In line with a study by MIT that in contrast brick-and-mortar buying to on-line buying, shopping for on-line usually has a decrease carbon footprint than driving round—besides when web shoppers select 2-day or quicker supply.
Each time doable, plan forward to keep away from 2-day or rush delivery. Choosing a slower delivery time offers the shipper time to schedule deliveries extra effectively. Attempt to consolidate shipments of a number of objects when you may, and waive signature necessities (or use Amazon locker) to forestall a number of supply makes an attempt.
There are lots of on-line outlets focusing on sustainable and handcrafted items, from arts & crafts to clothes to family items to superb jewellery, together with:
12. Stuff Stockings With Yummy, Pure Treats
Stocking stuffers are typically small, plastic trinkets that find yourself damaged, misplaced or within the rubbish by the tip of January. As an alternative, honor an old school custom and fill your stockings with yummy treats like dried fruit, nuts, clementines, sweet, and homemade holiday cookies.
How are you being inexperienced this vacation season?
We Want You a Peaceable Vacation and an Plentiful New Yr!
—The Small Footprint Household
This text was excerpted from my ebook Sustainability Starts at Home – How to Save Money While Saving the Planet. For extra money-saving, planet-friendly ideas, choose up a duplicate at the moment!
Additionally featured on NPR’s Here and Now Show with Robin Young
