Food Waste Energy Waste Packaging Waste Office Paper Waste

Tips for Reducing Packaging Waste

  • Remember that you want the product, not the packaging.
  • Avoid buying products with excess packaging, especially plastic.
  • Don't buy/use polystyrene foam, since it never decomposes.
  • In cases in which it is feasible, request that packaging be taken back by the supplier upon delivery.
  • Request reduced packaging by volume and weight.
  • Request reusable and refillable packaging.
  • Request that suppliers use increasing amounts of recycled materials in packaging and packaging which is recyclable in the majority of recycling systems today.
  • Apply these principles to your own packing practices.
  • Reuse and recycle boxes and packaging material.
  • When shopping choose reusables over disposables.
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Tips for a "Green" Holiday Season
 

While the winter holiday season brings good cheer to many people, it also brings a lot more solid waste to the landfill, impacts to our environment, additional consumption of natural resources, and additional debt to the average American family. Regardless of which holiday you celebrate, here are some environmentally-smart tips and web site links for a less wasteful -- and perhaps less stressful -- holiday this year.

Every year, there are 2.65 billion holiday cards sold in the U.S. That's enough to fill a football stadium field 10 stories high!

    1. Wrapping paper is often used once and thrown away.
    2. Try using colorful pages torn from magazines to wrap small gifts, and old maps or the Sunday comics for larger boxes.
    3. Avoid using paper entirely by using reusable decorative tins, baskets or boxes.
    4. If you do buy wrapping paper, look for ones made of recycled paper.
    5. Reusable cloth ribbons can be used in place of plastic bows.
    6. Finally, unwrap gifts carefully and save wrappings for reuse next year.

     

  • Instead of material gifts, consider gifts of your time or expertise. For example, offer to do chores, babysitting, snow shoveling, etc. Or, offer to teach someone your expertise: how to bake, knit, repair things, etc.
  • If you buy gifts, look for durable and re-usable items and resist the latest "fad" at the shopping mall. Think of how many pet rocks, mood rings, and cabbage patch dolls ended up in the landfill!
  • Look for gifts with an environmental message: a nature book, a refillable thermos bottle, a canvas tote bag, a battery recharger or items made from recycled materials. Choose solar powered instead of battery powered products. Or better yet, ones that require no power at all.

Americans throw away about 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. That's an additional 5 million tons of garbage!

    Other environmentally-smart gifts include homemade ones:

    1. Home baked cookies, bread or jams, a plant or tree.
    2. Gifts that don't create any waste: concert or movie tickets, dinner at a restaurant, or an IOU to help shovel snow or repair a leaky faucet.
    3. Gifts that get "used up": candles, soap, or seeds for next year's garden.
    4. If you go out shopping, bring your own tote bags and avoid coming home with an armload of plastic bags holding just one item.
    5. You are probably receiving piles of mail order catalogs at this time of year. Call the company's 800 number and ask that you be removed from their mailing list. Fortunately, magazines and catalogs can be recycled at local recycling centers.

It takes an average of 6 months for a credit card user to pay off their holiday debt.

If you send holiday cards, look for ones made of recycled paper or recycled cards (see St. Judes' Ranch for Children, below). Avoid cards with glossy, shiny or gold foil coatings since these cannot be recycled. Save the cards that you get in the mail, cut off the front pictures, and reuse as "postcards" next year. This saves on postage too. Or, send electronic cards or make a phone call instead!

For tree trimmings, try edible or compostable items like popcorn or cranberries on a string, gingerbread cookies or items made from "found" objects around your home.

If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.

 

Some web sites to LEARN MORE... about reducing waste and the environmental impacts of the holiday season

St. Jude's Ranch for Children
St. Jude's Ranch Gift Shop
Holiday Waste Prevention Tips from Vermont ANR
The Center for a New American Dream
Ad Busters.ORG
42 Ways to Trim Your Holiday Waste
Earth 911 Holiday Recycling and Tips
New Hampshire Pollution Prevention Holiday Guide
Alternative Gifts International
Holiday Waste Reduction Tips
Green Gift Guide

No Waste Holiday Ideas
Recycle Now - Waste Reduction for the Holidays
Conservatree
Holiday Worms
A Holiday Recycling Tale
National Christmas Tree Association
Escape from Affluenza
Earth Share
Good Stuff? A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy
The largest directory of qualified green businesses available online

With careful thought, it is possible to reduce waste, conserve resources and promote environmental protection during this busy season.

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more!"

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Suess

Thanks go to members of CURC, the College and University Recycling Council, for much of this web page content.