Greening the Holidays

MetroWest Climate Solutions recently hosted a webinar on “Greening the Holidays.” Featured speakers: Lauren Fernandez, Zero Waste Policy Analyst at the Conservation Law Foundation, and Janice Paré, Environmental Analyst at the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection, and David O’Leary, Magic 106.7 Morning Magic host and voiceover talent, serving as emcee.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, the average American throws out 25 percent more trash than they do throughout the rest of the year, according to the EPA. That’s about one million extra tons of garbage each week. When we consider holiday meals, gift wrapping, and packaging from online orders, it’s easy to see how quickly all of our waste adds up. Here are some tips to trim the trimmings while preserving the festive spirit of the holiday season.

Paper and Packaging

Most wrapping paper can’t be recycled so much of it ends up in a landfill. In the UK alone, consumers use an estimate 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year, about half of which ends up in the trash. Alternatives:

• Use reusable gift bags (fabric or paper) year after year, or the sturdy boxes pre-printed with holiday images. You can find these at Marshalls, Home Goods, Costco, etc. Or gift the item in a nice reusable bag that can be used for grocery shopping.
• Kraft paper is 100% recyclable. If there’s a child in the family, ask the little one to decorate it with markers or crayons. (No paints please!) Repurpose newspapers, comics, colorful magazine pages or mylar balloons as wrapping.
• Questions about what you can/can’t recycle? Check out recyclesmartma.org.
• Instead of tape, use twine or old ribbons. Recycle those ribbons forever too!
• If you’re a seamstress, use leftover fabric to make some reusable bags for common gifts like books. A set of hand-sewn wine gift bags can double as shoe bags for travel. Two gifts in one!
• Wrap gifts in your pillowcases tied with twine.
• In the U.S., we purchase 1.6 billion holiday cards each year. Consider e-cards or personalized emails instead of holiday cards.

Gift Wisely

An estimated 1 in 10 unwanted gifts end up in the landfill each year. Consider asking family members what they truly want or need. If you do end up with something you don’t need, re-gift it or post it on a Freecycle, Buy Nothing or Craig’s List Free group. You can also re-sell items at a site like OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace. Don’t assume that donating to Good Will or a similar nonprofit means it won’t get tossed. Sadly, many of these organizations get overwhelmed with our stuff. Other ideas for earth-friendly gifts:

• Create a list: Stick with a plan. It’s easy to get carried away at the last minute.
• Limit gifting to kids: Make a pact with your family that the focus of the holidays should be children, or get everyone to agree to a modest dollar limit for gifts.
• Experience gifts: Museum passes, escape room tickets, audio books, movie tickets, and gift cards to local businesses and restaurants.
• The gift of your time: Deliver dinner on a weeknight, bake brownies or bread, shovel snow, rake leaves, wash or detail a car. Gift a cookbook, with an offer to make 5 recipes of their choice from the book. For friends with children, babysitting is a thrilling gift.
• Secondhand items: Shop for books at a site such as Thriftbooks, or seek out kids’ clothing or toys from a secondhand shop. You likely know your friends well enough to know if they’ll be receptive.
• Shop local: Support local merchants; use your recyclable bags. This saves on shipping and the plastic and cardboard waste generated by online orders.
• Sites that let you choose: Nonprofits such as Kiva or Donors Choose enable the recipient to select the project they’d like to fund. These are great ways to get kids involved in charitable giving.
• Green gifting: Gift a bamboo toothbrush, reusable folding utensils, or eco-friendly detergent with wool dryer balls. For tree lovers, onetreeplanted.org is doing reforestation projects in areas devastated by fires.
• Teach a skill: Gift a young person (or adult!) a life skill such as knitting, cooking, basic carpentry or car repair.
• Spotify playlist: Create a custom list of favorite tunes.
• Online lessons: Sign up classes on cooking, wine, birding, gardening or other topics where multiple family members or friends can share the experience.
• Fancy foods: Gifts of coffee, chocolate, jams, cheeses, and flavored olive oils are practical but appreciated. Rather than buying a ready-made gift basket, create your own with items you know a family member will love.

Chop Food Waste

Holiday meals with loved ones are a beloved tradition. Unfortunately, they can produce a lot of waste. You can plan how much food you really need using the Guestimator. If you’re going to another person’s home, ask what dish they truly need to avoid duplicating items. Other ideas:

• Consider composting. Food makes up nearly 25 percent of our waste stream. That’s expensive on so many fronts and it generates methane (25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere) as it decays in a landfill. Check out MassDEP's home composting site.
• Invite guests to bring containers for leftovers. This helps ensure that all leftovers are put to use and avoids those foil-wrapped paper plate creations we often resort to.
• If you’re hosting, use reusable plates, silverware, and glasses. If you aren’t hosting, offer to help your host with doing the dishes after the meal if they’re on the fence about using reusables for convenience.

Downshift Décor

Being mindful about décor can make a big difference. Before buying another holiday item, monitor one of the many “free” community sites for alternatives. Also:

• Try to reuse your ornaments, centerpieces, etc. for years. Consider making garlands out of construction paper rather than buying tinsel or plastic garlands. A reusable, quality advent calendar, for example, can become part of your annual tradition.
• Consider making wreaths from items in your yard, if possible.
• Real trees are generally better for the environment than artificial trees. They’re a sustainable crop, like any other natural crop, and those trees are taking lots of carbon dioxide out of the air. If possible, select a tree that has been grown without pesticides. When it’s time to dispose of the tree, try to find a municipal collection program that will mulch it, rather than burn it.
• Potted trees that can then be planted are a great idea. Some folks decorate their potted ficus or Norfolk pine trees.
• If the convenience of an artificial tree is a must for you, the key is to use it forever. If yours came with lights and the lights fail eventually, replace just the lights (with LEDs) rather than the entire tree. If you need to part with it, be sure to give it away on a community site. Because they’re made of mixed plastic and metal, fake trees are not recyclable and will end up in a landfill.
• Onetreeplanted.org is a charity doing reforestation projects in areas devastated by fires. You can donate to them as a gift.
• Speaking of lights, consider upgrading your old Christmas lights to LED lights, which use much less energy than the older lights. Some big box stores, like Best Buy and Lowes, will take back old Christmas lights. Some municipalities have special string light collection events as well.

In recent years, we’ve all become more aware of the dire plight of our planet. Share these ideas with friends and family. Odds are, they’ll be relieved to learn that you, too, are thinking of ways to cut holiday waste. Keeping the lines of communication open on these topics can give us all hope for greener holidays ahead.