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You can celebrate Christmas without trashing the planet!

Decking the halls – as sustainably as possible

The holiday season brings good cheer to many people and is a wonderful time to celebrate with colleagues, friends, and family.

But beyond that are the unintended environmental consequences of all this good cheer. One of the biggest is excessive generation of solid waste and consumption of natural resources.

According to Vanderbilt University (which has produced a handy guide to greening the holidays, some of which is included below), studies show that Americans throw away about 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.

If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. Likewise, 35% of Americans have an unused Christmas present collecting dust in their closet.

In the UK the picture is much the same.  During Christmas week we will throw away 227,000 miles of wrapping paper  – enough to go round the world nine times. The discarded packaging from 10 million turkeys and 25 million Christmas puddings and everything else we throw away would fill 1500 bin bags the side of Big Ben.

We need to do things differently, to find ways to celebrate and enjoy ourselves while minimising our impact on the planet – and on the future of our children and grandchildren – as much as possible.

Greening your holiday greetings

The exchange of gifts and cards during the holidays has become an American tradition. But when the uwrapping is over, millions of tons of paper products and packaging are taken to the landfill during the holiday season.

About 2.65 billion holiday cards are sold in the United States each year—that’s enough to fill a football stadium 10 stories high. In the UK it is estimated that up to 1 billion Christmas cards (17 for every man, woman and child) could end up afterwards in bins across the UK. If all these cards were laid end to end they would span from London to Sydney and back more than five times!

To reduce the environmental impact of your shopping and giving this year, consider these suggestions:

• Instead of sending Holiday Cards via postal or campus mail to your colleagues, clients, friends, and family, consider sending electronic cards. You will save trees, save greenhouse gas emissions created during the transportation of the cards, save pollution from the printing process, and even save some money!
• Pick up the phone. Phoning someone to say happy holidays is much more personal than sending a card.
• If you send cards, choose cards that are printed with vegetable-based inks on paper with recycled content.
• If you choose to send cards, consider buying those that provide a donation to a favourite charity.
• Reuse the front of greeting cards as colourful postcards or gift tags.

It is better to give…

• Try to purchase items locally to help small merchants, drive less, and support the local economy. Antique and thrift stores are also great places to find unique gifts.Whether you call it pre-loved or secondhand, charity shops can be a great way to give ‘recycled’ gifts that are completely unique.
• Consider gifts that support your local community and generate minimal waste. This includes things like theatre or performance tickets, charitable donations, or gift certificates.
• Give a gift that helps someone go green. Items such as energy-saving power strips, motion sensor lights, reusable stainless steel water bottles, and reusable cloth shopping bags are great sustainable gifts.
• Give the gift of your time. Volunteer for a charitable organization in lieu of a gift. Offer your friends and family an evening of babysitting or a home-cooked meal.
• Re-gift! Give a past present you didn’t need or want to someone you think might appreciate it, or to local Christmas gift appeals.
• Try to purchase items locally to help small merchants, drive less, and support the local economy. Antique and thrift stores are also great places to find unique gifts.
• Purchase gifts that are fair-trade, locally made or grown, or organically grown, such as coffee or chocolate (see our feature Give Something Back by Giving Organic)

All wrapped up

• Bring your own tote bags in which to carry your purchases when you go shopping.
• Online shopping keeps you out of your car and off the roads, and may curb impulse buying. However, consider how far your purchases have to travel to reach you.Put gifts in reusable packaging, such as baskets, bags, or fabric wrappers.
• Where you can use public transportation to get to your shop[ping destination.
• Try packaging this year’s gifts in comics, newspaper, old maps, or brown paper decorated with sponge art or drawings instead of wrapping paper so your presents’ packaging can be recycled after the holidays. Recycled aluminium foil can also make for a fun and different approach to wrapping.
• Natural fibre raffia works well as a substitute for ribbon and is recyclable too! Also look into twine or yarn made with recycled material.
• If purchasing wrapping paper, find responsible gift wrap that is made with post-consumer recycled content. Look for paper printed with plant-based inks instead of harmful petroleum based products

Decking the halls (as sustainably as possible)

Trees and decorations make your home or office feel cheery but they also create significant waste. For instance,  in the UK alone over six million trees are bought at Christmas most of which are thrown out after December 10, creating over 9,000 tonnes of additional rubbish, almost five times the weight of the London Eye.

Even so choosing between an artificial tree and a real tree can be a difficult decision – both have impacts.

• Consider buying a live tree with a rootball that is native to your area. After the holidays, plant it in your yard.
• Recycle your real tree following the holidays – they make great mulch for the garden!
• Decorate an indoor plant instead of a tree this year.
• If you do purchase an artificial tree, be sure to use it for many years. Artificial trees consume energy and petroleum-based materials during their manufacture. If pre-lighted, be sure to buy one with LED (light-emitting diode) lights.

Beyond your tree here are some other decorating tips to consider:

• Invest in LED (light-emitting diode) holiday lights, which use 90% less energy than traditional incandescent lights and can last up to 100,000 hours!
• Host an old ornament swap with friends instead of purchasing new ones. Or, take a trip to your local antique shop or thrift store to find great pre-loved decorations.
• As an alternative to decorative string lights, use popcorn and cranberries, or colored raffia made with post-consumer recycled content.
• Make your own wreaths and table centerpieces using materials from your yard or around your home.
• Conserve energy by only leaving holiday lights turned on for a small period of time each night. You may want to place your lights on self-timers that turn your lights on and off at pre-programmed hours so you don’t forget or leave them on all night.
• Instead of traditional paraffin wax candles, use candles made from vegetable based waxes, infused with natural essential oils. These  do not emit unsafe aromatic hydrocarbons and produce less soot than paraffin candles. (see our feature Are Your Candles Hiding a Toxic Secret?)

Eat, drink, be merry (& remember to recycle)

Whether you are preparing a home-cooked holiday meal or hosting a holiday party, these tips will help to make your meals more environmentally friendly. For sustainable food practices, consider the food itself, the transportation of the food, and the waste produced by food packaging.

• Shop at stores (or hire caterers) that commit to using locally grown and organic food. This greatly reduces the distance the food had to travel to your home or event, making it fresher, and reducing the environmental impact of that transportation process.
• cook as much as you need to avoid excessive waste after the big meal.
• Seek free-range and/or locally raised meat for your holiday celebrations.
• Consider serving or eating less meat this year and serving vegetarian- and/or vegan-friendly alternatives
• Consider serving more veg, creatively prepared. Look for seasonal varieties such as stuffed winter squashes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots, broccoli, Swiss chard, mushrooms, and more!
• Buy organic wines, beers and ciders for your holiday celebration (see our feature Organic Wine – Flavourful, Healthful, Ethical)

When it’s all over remember to recycle your packaging. If all the jars of mincemeat, pickles and cranberry sauce that we throw away in the UK around this time were recycled it would save enough energy to boil the water for 60 million cups of tea!