By: Grace W. 

Don’t forget to tune in to this Friday’s Facebook Live program, “Sustainable Gift Workshop” at 4 pm. I will be going over ways to wrap and give gifts sustainably, teaching you how to make a homemade gift bow, and giving some low-cost gift ideas.

Sustainability and the Holidays

When it comes to the holidays, there is so much going on that sustainability can oftentimes get forgotten. This is totally understandable! Most of us don’t think about how we might be using more electricity, creating more waste, and making a bigger impact on the environment during the holidays. However, if we all work to make the holidays a little greener, it would make a big impact.

Here are 7 tips to make a difference during the holiday season.

  1. Be mindful of your holiday lights by turning them off in the daytime. In addition, if you are in the market for some new holiday lights, try to look for LED’s. These use less energy and will last a lot longer than traditional lights.
  2. In the U.S. people throw away 25% more trash from Thanksgiving to New Years. To help combat this, try to donate or re-gift any unwanted gifts. You can also try avoiding un-recyclable decorations like gift bows and glitter, and try making your own decorations (like the gift bows in Friday’s program).
  3. Try re-using materials, like newspaper, to wrap your gifts. If every family in the U.S. wrapped 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough wrapping paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
  4. Food waste is a big problem during all seasons, but big holiday feasts can sometimes make us have eyes bigger than our stomachs. To avoid wasting food, start out with small portions and go back for seconds if you want more.
  5. Another way to reduce waste involved with holiday meals, it to use re-usable silverware, plates, cups, and cloth napkins. Since we have all been having smaller gatherings this year, this swap shouldn’t affect your clean up time too much.
  6. Try sending e-cards. This not only saves paper and transportation emissions, it also saves you money. You can also try re-using the front of old holiday cards as to and from tags.
  7. If you are looking for a new family tradition, why not try participating in the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count? This event will get you out in nature and allow you to try out birding. The Lisle-Arboretum bird count will be taking place on December 20th this year.

 

For more information, check out these links.

Sustainability tips 

Christmas Bird Count 

Sustainability tips