How to Green Your Holiday
During the holiday season we are inundated with bright
sparkly lights, the smell of pine and festive decorations. Sadly, not all of those items listed are good for our environment. So this year try adding a green spin. You will
see how easy it is to go green during this holiday season.
When it comes to house lights for the holiday try upgrading
your older lights to new energy efficient LED lights. These lights are 80 to 90 percent more efficient that incandescent's. LED's are also safer for your family, since they run cooler which makes them less of a fire hazard. Also for a 30 day period of time incandescent
lights can cost around $18 whereas LED lights only cost $.19. One last nifty note, if one LED bulb goes out on the strand the rest of the strand will stay lit.[i]
As for your other outdoor decorations try and reduce the size of your display this
year. Decorating for the holiday is not a challenge it is about spreading
holiday cheer. Go with what you think is spirited and not try to challenge
your neighbor to a light dual. Another note would be to turn your lights off
when going to bed. Its not energy efficient to leave your lights on
whilst everyone is asleep.One such item that will help you make sure your lights go on and off at the right time would be a light timer. Light timers range from 10 dollars to around 25 and can be found at most home improvement stores.
The Tree
If you were to switch to a live tree
this year you would be making a more sustainable choice. Live trees for the most
part are locally sourced so their carbon footprint is much smaller. Also live
trees help with air pollution while they are growing on the tree farms as
well as if or when you replant them after the holidays.
Wrapping Paper
Some options would be using hemp or recycled paper from
previous years as well as fabric scraps, comic books strips, old calendars and
maps. With some of these options you can get pretty creative with how you
present the gift. Also, when choosing gift wrap try to steer clear of glossy
foil or metallic wrap, since those types of papers are difficult to recycle. It
is hard to separate out the heavy metals from the paper itself so the paper can
become mulch.
Green Gifts
Whenever it comes to thinking of gifts for others people usually revert back to the almighty gift cards or sweaters, but this year think outside of
the box and give a green gift. See some green gift ideas below. [iii]
Help a Good Cause: Give
a gift that can help animal or environmental conservation groups.
Recycle or Upcycled
Goods: Visit sights such as Etsy to find items that are beautiful and are
made of recycled items.
Help Reduce Waste: Give
a gift that will help others cut down on waste. These items can range from
small to large in size.
Kill the Watts: Give a gift that should be counted as two gifts. Help someone cut down on energy use and in turn saves them moolah! I think that this gift goes above and beyond
[i]
“How to have a ‘green’ Christmas”, Dec., 5, 2014, http://eartheasy.com/give_sustainchristmas.htm
[ii] “Drought
Intensifies Christmas Tree Debate:, Dec., 18,2014, http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=102005PYMK3C
[iii]“
9 Green Gift Ideas For the Holiday Season”, Dec. 15, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/green-gift-guide_n_6261474.html