Households produce about 25 percent more trash than normal during the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s (hello packaging, wrapping paper, decorations, extra food, shopping bags, etc.). The holidays seem to be all about consumption. Sure, much of it arises from the holiday spirit of giving. But isn’t it possible to get through these days of commercialism with a lighter footprint? To that end, here’s a green shopping list and a few tips on how you can help the planet.
Let It Snow, Let It Glow, Let It Grow
Not only does December offer the least daylight of the year, it also frequently features a whole lot of extra decorative lighting. Save some energy by decorating with LED lights, which use 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights.
Instead of using a live-cut or plastic Christmas tree, try trimming an evergreen in your yard with lights and weather-safe adornments. Or buy a potted live tree that you can plant after the New Year. Want more options? Buy your tree from a local organic tree farm and recycle it into woodchips or mulch afterward.
Create useful wrapping (instead of using traditional paper) by placing items within a towel, scarf, cloth bag, ceramic pot, cooking pot, or recycled mason jar.
As you gather groceries for the inevitable holiday feasts, choose organic and local foods when possible.
Skip the packaging and give of your time, such as an offer of a free night of babysitting, a house repair, or a home-cooked meal.
Money Well Spent
D&R Greenway Land Trust offers Walk the Trails In and Around Princeton, which features trail maps for sixteen walks through local parks and preserves, as well as color postcards. It is printed on sustainable papers using soy inks, and profits benefit trail maintenance and stewardship of preserved lands.
The Save-a-Friend Program of the Edison Wetlands Association lets you help pay for feeding and veterinary care for one of its Triple C Ranch farm animals. The Tenafly Nature Center has a similar program, which allows donors to support the native New Jersey species under its care, such as a red-tailed hawk or an endangered corn snake. And the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor has an Adopt-a-Terrapin project that helps protect the small turtles of New Jersey’s salt marshes.
Hackensack Riverkeeper sells books, hats, T-shirts, and notecards to raise funds to support its advocacy on behalf of the Hackensack River.
Memberships in many local environmental organizations, such as Clean Ocean Action (which protects the Jersey coast from pollution) and the Upper Raritan Watershed Association, often come with subscriptions to magazines and invitations to special fundraising events.