Tip for Holiday Greenness
12/19/2012
Sure the holidays are a time for giving and gifts and loads of cheer. But they’re also a time when we generate an enormous amount of waste—25 million tons of garbage, to be exact. That’s a quarter more from Thanksgiving through New Year’s than any other period all year long, according to Use Less Stuff.
But Audubon’s TogetherGreen program and Toyota have some great tips to “reduce, reuse, and recycle your way into the New Year.”
Here are four (for more, click on the beautiful infographic):
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1. Wrapping: Use alternative materials such as newspaper or scrap paper with holiday-themed stencils.
2. Shopping bags: This holiday season, tell store clerks “No thanks” and bring your own canvas or cloth tote.
3. Lights: Switch to LED lights to use 80-90 percent less electricity.
4. Cards: Switch to free electronic cards to reduce your impact.
Happy waste-free holidays!
Comments
Way Too Much Waste
Great tips that everyone needs to implement. We do have to be mindful of all the unnecessary waste that is produced especially from a special occasion like Christmas and should do our part in reducing it.
John Chow - Tony Chau
green audobon
Editorial:
Dear Audubon, Your magazine is great and covers many important environmental issues of great concern to mankind. But what is the deal giving gifts to subscribers that are made of petroleum? The jackets and blankets you offer as gifts are made of synthetic materials which have a major component being oil. Hypocrisy at it's best, maybe you could be more green here.
Also, maybe a few of you amateur ornithologist can stay at home to observe and record the avians there instead of globe hopping to observe species that are not in your back yard or region you live in. Think of the petroleum and resources you could save. A small carbon footprint is the goal, not how many gallons of fuel you can use on unneeded flights around the world to observe birds.
sincerely, David Smith Ecologist