How to stay eco-friendly during the festive season?
Tons of packaging, wrappings and other holiday-related stuff are being thrown away between and after Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is hard to stay cautious during the holiday rush, but if we want to stick to eco-lifestyle, we should give it a try. These eco-friendly pieces of holiday advice will help you to stay on track.
- Don’t wrap the presents in mass-produced wrapping paper. Unfortunately, most of the wrappings are not recyclable and end up in landfills. To make the paper white and colorful, the manufacturers use harmful for the environment chemicals. Instead, you can use eco-friendly brown paper that has already been recycled. You can write your wishes or draw pictures right on top of it to make it really special (kids will love it too). Or you can use eco textile bags of boxes that can be used later on instead of being thrown away on the rubbish dump.
- Use energy-saving LED fairy lights. Before the LED holiday lights flooded the market, billions of kilowatts were used to power the traditional lights. Besides, when only one light burnt out all the rest stopped glowing too and had to be thrown away. Today you can even buy fairy lights powered by solar energy, that will bring your home one step closer to net-zero during the holiday season.
- Use only organic food for your holiday feast. By buying exotic foods you harm the environment. Just think of the way your shoppings have to make from the manufacturer to your table. The shorter this way, the better, so stick to locally grown fruits, vegetables, meat and all the other food you can get from the farms nearby. To stay eco-friendly, you should also buy the exact amount of food you and your family are going to consume.
- Buy a Christmas tree in the pot, so that at the end of the holidays you can plant it in your yard or the local park. If you still prefer to buy your tree in the traditional Christmas farms, make sure that no pesticides and artificial colorants were used while growing it. And when it’s time to take your Christmas tree away, don’t forget to recycle it. There are lots of recycling programs worldwide, find one that is available in your region.
- Recycle, recycle, recycle. With all those gifts you give and receive don’t neglect to recycle the things you don’t need anymore. Mobile phones contain hazardous components that can poison the soil. Old phones, tablets, clothes, etc. should be recycled properly or donated to local charity organizations in case they are still too good to be recycled.
- Holiday season with all its spirit and cheer is a great time to make your contribution into a good deed by volunteering. You can help to clean up a local forest or park, plant trees or donate money to your local environmental organization. Find out about eco-friendly programs around you and choose what fits you best!
- Be sensible when picking presents and try to avoid buying stuff the receivers will not need. While your grandma will love a homemade piece of soap and a handicraft photo album, your kids will be happy to receive an experiential gift, which can be a trip to the zoo or farm, a lesson of something fun and new, or tickets somewhere they want to go.