‘Tis the Season
For many of us, it’s the “holiday” season and it means families coming together, large dinners and gifts being exchanged. It also means waste. There is an estimated 25 percent increase in household waste generated in North America over the holiday season. It’s an easy time of year to “forget” about our green habits, but it’s also a key time of year to make sure we do not forget about the environment.
There are various ways we can keep the holiday season as “recycled” as possible. Home made gift wrap using recyclable paper, and reusing gift wrap or gift bags is ideal. We can also substitute newspaper, old maps, or other recyclable paper for traditional gift wrap, which remains mostly unrecyclable. Plus, there are more and more recyclable gift wrap alternatives these days. Earth Presents (www.earthpresents.com) for example, offers wrapping paper and tags made from paper that is 100 percent recycled content, and which is processed chlorine-free and with vegetable-based inks. Even bows from Earth Presents are made from recycled plastic bottles.
When it comes to gifts, we can buy those with less packaging whenever possible, and we can buy gifts made from recyclable content and which are recyclable. Of course, we can always go really traditional and make gifts. We can also use reusable bags when shopping and look for recycled-content cards. Other options during the holiday season include saying no to disposable plates, cutlery and cups, and using LED holiday lights which last much longer than traditional lights. Unfortunately, there aren’t alot of options for recycling old lights these days, but the options are starting to appear. One company in the US, HolidayLEDs.com, takes back old incandescent lights in exchange for a coupon towards the purchase of new LED lights.
Finally, for those of us celebrating Christmas, we need to consider the tree at this time of year. There are points to be made on both sides of the debate about which is more environmentally friendly – the real or the artificial tree. The key point about an artificial tree is that it can be used over and over. Manufactured trees though are mostly produced overseas (mainly in China, Taiwan and South Korea), and so bring with them the environmental costs of long distance transport. There is also a great deal of energy used in an artificial tree’s production, and because of the mixture of plastic and metal used, artificial trees are not recyclable.
Real trees are recyclable and are commonly available locally. Five to six million Christmas trees are grown each year in Canada. There is some transport involved, but not nearly as much as for artificial trees produced overseas. Tree farms do provide some obvious benefits to the environment: soil stabilization, increased oxygen, increased CO2 sequestration, some habitat for wildlife, etc. Plus, there are organic tree farms, and/or trees which are replantable. On the down-side of using a real tree, depending on the farm where they’re grown, there may be herbicides, pesticides or other chemicals used during their growing cycle. And if there are no options for recycling, or if people don’t find the time, real trees may end up being burned or sent to a landfill.
When in doubt about where to recycle, or what can be recycled anytime of year, consult your provincial recycling association, or websites such as Earth911.com, where visitors can search for local recycling centres across North America.
If you want to share these holiday season recycling ideas with others, you can go to our Recycling Product News website at www.baumpub.com/rpn, and under Editor’s Note, copy the letter to your email.
Best of the season from all of us here at Recycling Product News.
There are various ways we can keep the holiday season as “recycled” as possible. Home made gift wrap using recyclable paper, and reusing gift wrap or gift bags is ideal. We can also substitute newspaper, old maps, or other recyclable paper for traditional gift wrap, which remains mostly unrecyclable. Plus, there are more and more recyclable gift wrap alternatives these days. Earth Presents (www.earthpresents.com) for example, offers wrapping paper and tags made from paper that is 100 percent recycled content, and which is processed chlorine-free and with vegetable-based inks. Even bows from Earth Presents are made from recycled plastic bottles.
When it comes to gifts, we can buy those with less packaging whenever possible, and we can buy gifts made from recyclable content and which are recyclable. Of course, we can always go really traditional and make gifts. We can also use reusable bags when shopping and look for recycled-content cards. Other options during the holiday season include saying no to disposable plates, cutlery and cups, and using LED holiday lights which last much longer than traditional lights. Unfortunately, there aren’t alot of options for recycling old lights these days, but the options are starting to appear. One company in the US, HolidayLEDs.com, takes back old incandescent lights in exchange for a coupon towards the purchase of new LED lights.
Finally, for those of us celebrating Christmas, we need to consider the tree at this time of year. There are points to be made on both sides of the debate about which is more environmentally friendly – the real or the artificial tree. The key point about an artificial tree is that it can be used over and over. Manufactured trees though are mostly produced overseas (mainly in China, Taiwan and South Korea), and so bring with them the environmental costs of long distance transport. There is also a great deal of energy used in an artificial tree’s production, and because of the mixture of plastic and metal used, artificial trees are not recyclable.
Real trees are recyclable and are commonly available locally. Five to six million Christmas trees are grown each year in Canada. There is some transport involved, but not nearly as much as for artificial trees produced overseas. Tree farms do provide some obvious benefits to the environment: soil stabilization, increased oxygen, increased CO2 sequestration, some habitat for wildlife, etc. Plus, there are organic tree farms, and/or trees which are replantable. On the down-side of using a real tree, depending on the farm where they’re grown, there may be herbicides, pesticides or other chemicals used during their growing cycle. And if there are no options for recycling, or if people don’t find the time, real trees may end up being burned or sent to a landfill.
When in doubt about where to recycle, or what can be recycled anytime of year, consult your provincial recycling association, or websites such as Earth911.com, where visitors can search for local recycling centres across North America.
If you want to share these holiday season recycling ideas with others, you can go to our Recycling Product News website at www.baumpub.com/rpn, and under Editor’s Note, copy the letter to your email.
Best of the season from all of us here at Recycling Product News.