The Holidays are upon us!  Enjoy all the gifts, giving, foods, and drinks (responsibly of course).  Here’s a way to have a little less negative impact and introduce a new beautiful tradition.

 

Each of us will produce on average 6.5 pounds of waste per day over the holidays, or about 1.5 pounds more than the usual daily average .  This includes food waste, food packaging, wrapping paper, shopping bags, bows and ribbons, and more.  With a population of 330 million, that means we’ll produce almost 3 TRILLION MORE POUNDS of garbage PER WEEK during the holidays versus the rest of the year.  If you wanted to give reducing your footprint a go, maybe ‘tis the season to try.

 

Food waste can be composted and would really help your garden if you have one, but let’s save that topic for next Spring.

 

Let’s talk about all that gift-wrapping and associated waste that’s about to happen. You already know that MOST wrapping paper cannot be recycled due to the foils and sparkles and such.  How about reusable wrapping “paper”?!  The Japanese have a beautiful technique called “furoshiki” that involves wrapping gifts in reusable cloth, that can be purchased or even home-made!  Find some beautiful cloth at your local fabric store that have use beyond the season.  Perhaps find some unwanted fabrics in your own home and remake them into your own personalized decorative wrappings that will find reuse for years to come.  Could be a great creative project for kids as well.