09/16/24 - 98 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/2zvd7hju
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PROP Encourages Residents To Green Up Their Holiday
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The Staff of the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth’s state recycling association, has just one wish for Christmas – that all of their neighbors across the state go green. To help make their wish come true, the PROP staff have a gift for you - this list of ideas on how to have a very happy holiday while being good to our green earth:
1. If you have not yet gotten your tree, find a local tree farm and cut your own tree. Save on carbon emissions from trees cut and transported many miles while getting fresh air and exercise. Or, buy a potted evergreen.
2. When the holidays are over, don’t toss that tree in the landfill. Prop it up outside for the winter and decorate with popcorn, nuts and berries for your wildlife friends to enjoy. In the spring, find a local farmer who can add it to his compost pile. Or start your own compost pile. We can help (see below).
3. Time to decorate that tree? Cut energy costs by using LED lights that use 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights. LED lights now come in just as many fun shapes and colors as the old style, stay cool to the touch and last for many years.
4. When you go shopping, plan your trip to avoid unnecessary driving. Start at the farthest point and work your way home. OR – order online but hurry! According to “StopGlobalWarming.org,” e-commerce warehouses use 1/16th of the energy used to operate retail stores. And even overnight air shipping uses 40 percent less fuel than the average car trip to the store.
5. BPA-free or aluminum water bottles make great stocking stuffers. They’re a perfect way to meet New Year’s resolutions like eliminating purchasing all of that bottled water that require up to 2,000 times more energy to produce than tap water.
6. Need a “WOW” gift for your mother-in-law? Take yourself to the local department or discount store household section. There you will find the latest in a “new old-fashioned” eco-friendly trend – the cloth napkin. Save trees, reduce waste, and jazz up her dining room table with cloth napkins that come in a myriad of colors. Get your household a set too and help save a million trees!
7. PROP Staffers like to eat and when we bring food in for a special lunch, we cover the bowls with shower caps instead of plastic wrap. Plastic wrap can’t be recycled and NEVER degrades, but shower caps can be re-used for a long time. You can buy fancy ones specifically sold for kitchen use or get a set of basic shower caps, wash and get cooking!
8. My mother used to call herself “The Bag “Lady” because she just loved getting canvas bags, shopping bags, gift bags – if it was a bag with a handle, she kept it. Bags are now in big demand as we realize just how bad plastic shopping bags are for the environment. Even if you take your bags back to the store for recycling, you are in the minority. Only about 22 percent of Americans recycle those plastic bags. The other 88 percent find their way to trees along the interstate, in waterways where they choke turtles and fish as well as clog drains. If you have cool bags in a collection, why not get them out and use them for that last minute holiday shopping? And give them to friends. Keep a few bags beside you in the car for those quick trips to the mall or discount store. They aren’t just for the grocery store, you know.
9. Decorating and shopping done; now it’s time to wrap gifts. You can keep the green theme going by using alternatives to non-recyclable wrapping paper. Use the comics section of a newspaper, children’s artwork, old maps, gift bags that can be re-used next year, or those “WOW” cloth napkins or other cloth. (Americans generate enough non-recyclable wrapping paper over the holidays to cover 45,000 football fields.)
10. All that decorating, shopping and wrapping sure make you work up an appetite. (See, we really do like to eat!) Just like with the tree, support your local farmers when you purchase locally grown meat and produce and any other food that is produced locally. Buy your poinsettia and other holiday flowers from a local nursery too. Become conscious of the amount of packaging when you shop too – less packaging is a big clue that it’s likely produced locally. If we all avoid purchasing products (including toys, household items and food) that have a lot of packaging, manufacturers will get the hint and become better stewards of their products. Individual portion foods are a big culprit, as well as many toys. Avoid them every time you shop!
For more great ideas about green holidays as well as other recycling and organics ideas, visit the PROP website.
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12/20/2010 |
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