Studies show holiday preparations, including gift giving, holiday decorations and food preparation, increase the nation’s trash by an extra one million tons per week during the five weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
By reducing waste and “going green,” you may be able to save some green in the process.
Can Guy offers the following tips:
• Use decorative, reusable boxes and bags for gift giving instead of wrapping paper. If you must wrap, consider newspaper comics or fabric.
• Recycle used ribbons, bows, gift bags and decorative wrappings.
• Use reusable bags when shopping. Return plastic bags to stores for recycling.
• Use reusable plates, cups and silverware instead of disposable ones.
• Give non-materialistic “green” gifts that do not require wrapping, such as gift certificates for massages, to restaurants, cooking classes, sailing lessons, etc.
For additional tips for reducing waste during the holidays, visit the Recycle Guy’s holiday waste reduction site at: http://www.recycleguys.org/generalholidaywaste.html.