Buildings & Grounds Maintenance

While the winter holiday season brings good cheer to many people, it also brings a lot more solid waste to the landfill, impacts to our environment, additional consumption of natural resources, and additional debt to the average American family. Regardless of which holiday you celebrate, here are some environmentally smart tips and web site links for a less wasteful, and perhaps less stressful, holiday this year.

Click this link for Frequently Asked Questions about Holiday Waste Prevention.

Every year, there are 2.65 billion holiday cards sold in the U.S.  That's enough to fill a football stadium field 10 stories high!
 
Wrapping paper is often used once and thrown away. Try using colorful pages torn from magazines to wrap small gifts, and old maps or the Sunday comics for larger boxes. Avoid using paper entirely by using reusable decorative tins, baskets or boxes. If you do buy wrapping paper, look for ones made of recycled paper. Reusable cloth ribbons can be used in place of plastic bows. Finally, unwrap gifts carefully and save wrappings for reuse next year.

Instead of material gifts, consider gifts of your time or expertise. For example, offer to do chores, babysitting, etc. Or, offer to teach someone your expertise: how to bake, knit, repair things, etc.

If you buy gifts, look for durable and re-usable items and resist the latest "fad" at the shopping mall. Think of how many pet rocks, mood rings, and cabbage patch dolls ended up in the landfill!
 
Look for gifts with an environmental message: a nature book, a refillable thermos bottle, a canvas tote bag, a battery recharger or items made from recycled materials. Choose solar powered instead of battery powered products. Or better yet, ones that require no power at all.
 
Americans throw away about 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.  That's an additional 5 million tons of garbage!

Other environmentally-smart gifts include homemade ones: homebaked cookies, bread or jams, a plant or tree. Ones that don't create any waste at all: concert or movie tickets, dinner at a restaurant, or an IOU to help shovel snow or repair a leaky faucet. Ones that get "used up": candles, soap, or seeds for next year's garden.
 
If you go out shopping, bring your own tote bags and avoid coming home with an armload of plastic bags holding just one item.
 
You are probably receiving piles of mail order catalogs at this time of year. Call the company's 800 number and ask that you be removed from their mailing list. Fortunately, magazines and catalogs can be recycled at local recycling centers.
 
It takes an average of 6 months for a credit card user to pay off their holiday debt.
 
If you send holiday cards, look for ones made of recycled paper. Avoid cards with glossy, shiny or gold foil coatings since these cannot be recycled. Save the cards that you get in the mail, cut off the front pictures, and reuse as "postcards" next year. This saves on postage too.  Or, send ''electronic cards'' or make a phone call instead!
 
For tree trimmings, try edible or compostable items like popcorn or cranberries on a string, gingerbread cookies or items made from "found" objects around your home.
 
If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.

~Lastly~

Season to Recycle

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Lots of trash lay in heaps ready to be tossed out.

The packages were wrapped with barely a thought,
That recycled gift paper could've been bought.

Comics and newspapers, that went in the trash,
Could have wrapped holiday gifts in a flash.

Cardboard boxes were bound for the landfill this winter,
They could have been recycled at the local recycling center!

Greeting cards had been opened, then stuffed in trash bags
When they'd have made great postcards - or even gift tags!

Plenty of icicles and plastic hung on the tree
When pinecones and berries would look nice - naturally!

It was enough to make even old Santa shed a tear

"Another house that didn't recycle," he signed, " Maybe next year!"

Happy Holidays!!

Thank you to Erica Spiegel at the University of Vermont and Christine von Kolnitz at the Medical University of South Carolina for their help with the contents of this webpage.