Christmas is a time for joyful celebrations with family – but it’s also a time for excess and waste. Think of how many gifts end up getting tossed into the garbage, along with uneaten leftovers, wrapping paper and ribbons, broken ornaments and more. That’s a lot of extra material going to our landfills.
There are lots of ways your family can make this Christmas a green one – even if we do happen to get snow this year! Here are a few of the things my family will be doing in our home this holiday season:
- Giving thoughtful gifts that don’t end up in the garbage.
- Selecting gifts with less packaging.
- Using less gift wrap and more reusable gift bags.
- Saving as much gift wrap, bows and ribbons as possible for future re-use.
- Putting all of our food scraps and food-soiled papers into our green waste cart.
You might have seen Metro Vancouver’s great holiday campaign this year with the message: “The best way to reduce waste is not to create it in the first place.”
Check out the Zero Waste Challenge section at www.metrovancouver.org for more ideas about producing less waste this holiday season, including an online forum where you can share your waste-reducing tips with others.
Have a merry and “green” Christmas!
