Household Hints & HELP!

Holiday Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

submitted by Lorene Bartos, Extension Educator
This article appears in the November 28, 2004 Lincoln Journal Star Newspaper.

As the song goes, “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas” but have you ever thought of a green Christmas? Carrying out our traditional celebrations can still happen but keeping pollution prevention in mind can help save the environment as we plan for the holidays.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s approximately six million tons of extra waste are generated every year.

Some pollution prevention tips for...

Holiday Parties:

• If you are having a holiday party, turn down the heat before guests arrive—the extra body heat from your guests will help warm the room.
• Try to use less disposable utensils, plates, napkins and tablecloths at the party.
• Consider donating extra food to a shelter and compost the smaller food scraps.
• Prepare food in quantities that minimize oven use.
• Buy “faster” speed film such as 400 or 800, reducing flash usage and extending battery life.
• Buy 36-exposure film rather than 12 or 24 exposure to reduce the amount of packaging and film containers.
• Use a digital camera.
• Reuse old videotapes instead of buying new ones.

Holiday Decorations:

• Consider purchasing a potted tree to decorate and plant in your yard later, or buy an artificial tree.
• If you buy a cut tree, reuse it as habitat for birds in the backyard during the winter months. Hang feeders or suet balls on it and mulch the tree in the spring.
• Get outdoor light strands that are wired in parallel. These have separate circuitry so if one bulb blows out, the rest will keep shining, and you won’t need to throw out the entire strand.
• Make decorations out of natural materials, such as wreaths made out of red and green chilies; grapevine wreaths decorated with dried flowers; herb wreaths; etc.
• Make homemade tree ornaments out of things you already have around the house.

Holiday Shopping:

• Shop from home—either electronically or through catalogs.
• Plan ahead. Making a list will save time, money and last-minute shopping frenzies.
• Consolidate shopping trips. Less driving means less wasted gas and less stress.

Gifts, Gift Wrap and Cards:

• Look for gifts that are durable, not over-packaged, energy efficient; wind-up or uses rechargeable batteries; recycled (for example, antiques or used bikes) or recyclable; and not made of tropical woods like teak, rosewood or mahogany.
• Give gifts that help reduce environmental impacts, such as household goods like reusable linen napkins or reusable canvas shopping bags, educational items like nature books or memberships to environmental groups, or plants that help reduce indoor air pollution.
• Use reusable or recyclable wrapping paper.
• Wrap gifts in useful items, such as towels. Be creative when wrapping and reuse newspapers, maps, brown bags or make small gift bags or envelopes from magazines or calendar pages.
• Don’t wrap oversized gifts. Hide them and give the recipient clues to their location.
• Give gifts that don’t need to be wrapped liked gift certificates, concert tickets, sporting event tickets, lottery tickets or home-baked goods.
• For gifts requiring batteries, consider having rechargeable ones on-hand.
• Consider sending holiday postcards to save on postage, paper and envelopes or use e-mail.
• Give holiday cards made from recycled paper.
• If you are mailing gifts, use newspaper or real popcorn instead of plastic foam peanuts for cushioning.

Have a Happy Holiday season and think of the environment as you plan your holiday celebrations. Be creative and remember to reduce, reuse and recycle.

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