Have yourself a wasteful little Christmas...
While I didn't completely manage to buy nothing on the day after Thanksgiving--I did spend money going out to dinner with friends--it wasn't hard for me to steer clear of the "Black Friday" shopping binge. After all, there was sleeping in to do, organic turkey (not to mention all that non-organic wine and pie) to work off at the gym, and honestly, I'd rather spend the day getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist than lining up outside a store in the middle of the night only to get trampled by my fellow shoppers.
Getting through the rest of the holiday season without succumbing to overconsumption will be a bit trickier. No slouches in the trash-making department any time of year, Americans create an extra million tons of garbage each week between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Holiday spirit is a beautiful thing, but when 67 percent of us buy--and wrap--gifts for our pets, it's hard not to conclude that the merchandising mania is a bit out of control. During this season, Americans:
* throw away 38,000 miles of ribbon
* chop down 33 million Christmas trees
* buy 2.65 billion holiday cards
* consume 27 percent more electricity
For tips on minimizing holiday waste (or, as the Center for a New American Dream nicely puts it, having "more joy and less stuff"), check out the Center's online guide to simplifying the holidays.
(Get more ideas for living well and doing good in "The Green Life," a new section appearing in every issue of Sierra magazine.)
2 Comments:
One thing my wife and I have done for Christmas -- to cut down on wrapping paper waste -- is to wrap gifts in scarves and the like. They look just as good under the tree.
My mother-in-law likes to use x-mas zip lock bags, but somehow I find it less appealing.
In my family to cut down on waste, we always try to neatly cut open packages and save the paper to use for the next year. (This actually works really well, and we have some really old pieces of wrapping paper that are the 'favorites' and must not be destroyed). Also save any ribbons, why throw them out when you can tie them on next year? I also like to wrap some gifts in brown paper bags that would have been recycled anyway. Just tie a green and a red ribbon around it, and it is very nice. And recycle it afterwards of course.
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