Start a New Tradition By Making Thanksgiving A "Green" Holiday This Year

This season, Waste Management challenges its customers to start a new tradition that will bring new meaning to their traditional Thanksgiving celebrations.

“We understand that it can be easy to forget being green during the busy holiday season, but with a little effort, you can bring sustainability into your holiday. That is why we would like to remind our communities that there are always opportunities to conserve every day,” said Carolyn Anderson Corrao, Public Sector Solutions Manager for Waste Management.

Here are a few ways to reduce, reuse and recycle this Thanksgiving:

• Buy and eat locally grown food: Buying only locally grown food is a good way to have an eco-friendly Thanksgiving. Locally grown food is better for your health, the environment and contributes more to your local economy by supporting local farmers and merchants.
• Use recyclable bags when shopping for your holiday meal: Paper bag production consumes more than 14 million trees and it takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the amount of plastic bags the U.S. uses per year. By using reusable bags you are reducing the amount of paper and plastic bags used. 
• Invite the neighbors: Inviting your neighbors to share your eco-friendly Thanksgiving is an opportunity to reduce the amount of waste generated through holiday meals and is a great way to save your neighbors from making a road trip to visit family members that live far away. You also get the opportunity to share your green tips.
• Make eco-friendly decorations: With a little imagination, you can create your own “green” decorations and have a lot of fun in the process. Colored construction paper can be cut into turkeys and harvest decorations. Bringing fallen fall leaves from outside inside makes for beautiful table décor.  And when your holiday celebration is over, your decorations can be easily recycled.
• Reduce, recycle: Reduce the overall amount of waste you may produce this Thanksgiving by purchasing only as much as you need and selecting products that have less packaging or can be recycled.
• Use cloth napkins: Choose cloth napkins over paper. Not only is it better for the environment but it is also less expensive in the long run.  Paper napkins get one use, and then are thrown away. Cloth Napkins can be used multiple times before washing, which lower their cost per use.