Reduce, Re-use and Recycle your Holiday Waste



http://www.sxc.hu/profile/LotusHead

Did you know…

 “Approximately 33 million live Christmas trees are sold in North America every year…” (EPA)

“…the 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high…” (Use Less Stuff)

“About 40 percent of all battery sales occur during the holiday season…” (EPA)

 “Americans throw away 25% more trash in the Thanksgiving to New Year’s than any other time of year.  The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage…” (Use Less Stuff)

These numbers are staggering, especially when you think of all that “stuff” heading to the landfill. This week’s blog is a collection of thoughts about how to reduce these numbers, courtesy of Cascadia staff and my good friend, the Internet:

http://public.fotki.com/kelvinkay/collection_of_beaut/xmasparty061.html

Reduce:  Bring your cloth grocery bags on your holiday shopping trips or ask for no bag if you can easily carry your purchases out without one. If you happen to forget your reusable shopping bag, ask for paper bags and then use them as wrapping paper.  Opting out of gift boxes provided by clothing stores is a great way to reduce the amount of cardboard used during the holidays.

Buy recycled-content Christmas cards, wrapping paper, and gifts.  If you’re in the market for batteries or battery-operated gadgets, buy rechargeable.  Even better, give the gift of a rechargeable-battery charger!

Save energy and increase the lifespan of your holiday lights by turning them off during the day.  If you are purchasing new lights, choose LED, they will conserve further energy and last longer too.

One of my many hobbies is sewing, and so I wrap presents in fabric from my fabric stash.  I either use pieces I don’t mind losing to a fellow "crafter", or I just simply ask for the fabric back.  The Sunday comics also serve as good wrapping material, as the ink doesn't smudge. 

Kate, a Cascadia Resource Specialist, brought up this good point about Christmas trees:

"Even though fake Christmas trees are reusable, they are often made of petroleum products and discarded after a few years (filling landfills with bulk that takes a long time to degrade). Getting a tree-cutting permit (usually $5 from the Forest Service) and making the trip to cut one from the forest is a better choice. Many of the forests in our area are overstocked with trees and reducing the amount of small trees now will help forest health in the long run. Also, live trees can be chipped and used as mulch in gardens or parks."

Learn where to harvest Christmas trees in Chelan County and good tree-cutting etiquette from the Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest Service. 



Malene Thyssen, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene

 Re-use:  Try not to destroy ribbons and wrapping paper- particularly on large packages or those with nice paper- so you can save and use the materials in subsequent years. 

Amanda, Cascadia’s Ed and Outreach Specialist, offers:

"The main way I re-use around Christmas is by “re-bagging.” I always keep Christmas gifts bags for use again next year. We keep a box in the closet full of Christmas bags that we get out every year  rather than buying new ones each time."

At Cascadia’s holiday party, Amanda’s white elephant gift was stolen from her (as part of the game), but she did hang on to the festive bag that it came in!

In addition to stashing away supplies for next year’s gift wrapping, there are plenty of fun, creative activities that incorporate recycled materials.  A lot are great for kids, and are a wonderful way to teach them a valuable lesson in recycling! 

Make ornaments, paper chain garlands, and gift tags out of old holiday cards and wrapping paper.

Christmas lights have that annoying habit of going into the box at the end of the season in working order, and being burned out when you take them out of the box the following year. Instead of throwing them out in a fit of frustration, get crafty!  (If you’re not so inclined, see the recycling section below for other ways to keep strings of lights out of the landfill). Use burned-out Christmas lights (and also regular light bulbs) to make ornaments. Researching this topic on the internet, I came across some really wonderful ideas for penguin, snowmen/women, and reindeer ornaments!  Make jewelry out of small Christmas lights. There are how-to articles about this online too.

If you’ve got the appropriate space, take your Christmas tree out to your yard and create some backyard bird habitat! Birds will appreciate the refuge that the downed tree provides, especially if you’ve got a birdfeeder nearby.  You can also partially submerge your tree in a backyard pond to enhance aquatic habitat.  If you have the means, grind it up and use the woodchips for mulch.

Kris De Curtis http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christmas_tree_bauble.jpg

Recycle:  There are several companies on the web (search for “recycle Christmas lights”) that will take old strands of holiday lights and recycle the parts.  In exchange, they will send you a coupon you can use to buy new ones (brand-specific).

www.Earth911.com is a great resource for reducing, reusing, and recycling! Their database provides information on centers that accept all kinds of materials, from cardboard and glass to technology and industrial products.

In Chelan County, Dolco Packaging (1121 S Columbia Street, Wenatchee) is a 24-hour, free drop-off center that recycles Styrofoam.  Please note: not all Styrofoam is created equal.  You can call (509) 663-8541, or drop by and there may be signs up on site indicating which Styrofoam types they accept. 

Don’t let your tree go to waste!  That tree provided you with holiday cheer, and can now be put towards other good causes.  The Boy Scouts and the Chelan County Public Works' annual tree recycling program is also scheduled this year for Saturdays, December 31 and January 7 at four locations around Chelan County.  See their flyer for the details!

While some of these ideas might be a little too late for this year, there’s always next year!

For a great checklist of more ways to reduce your ecological footprint during the holidays, visit:

http://use-less-stuff.com/ULSDAY/42ways.html

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Charlie2301

If you have other ideas, please share them in the comment box below, we’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!

Your Friend in Conservation,
Julia

References:

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/recycling-crafts/lightbulbs/index.shtml

http://www.epa.gov/osw/wycd/funfacts/winter.htm

http://pages.uoregon.edu/recycle/events_topics_holiday_text.htm

http://use-less-stuff.com/ULSDAY/42ways.html

http://greenliving.about.com/od/thegreenfamily/tp/green_christmas.htm