Holiday Tips
Give
the Earth a Gift. Go Green.
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle this Holiday SeasonBOULDER,
December 12, 2006 – Boulder
County Resource Conservation Division is working to get the word out on
how people can green their holiday season. Americans throw away 25%
more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year's holiday period than any
other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of
garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week. So, to help
trim the trash while trimming the tree, utilize these holiday waste
reduction tips to make your holidays the merriest and greenest they can
be.
Give Green
- Give
consumable gifts like food, gift certificates, and movie passes.
- Give of your
time. Give friends and family certificates good for help with
babysitting, gardening, and other household chores.
- When shopping,
bring your own shopping bags to the stores or reuse the plastic
shopping bags you get with a purchase.
Send Green
- Eliminate
envelopes—fold holiday letters in half or thirds and put the address
and stamp on the back.
- Avoid wrapping
paper or cards with foil decorations or lining—they are not
recyclable.
- Send your
holiday letter via email and save precious resources.
Wrap Green
- Create beautiful
packages without feeling guilty. Wrap with imaginative reusable and
recyclable materials—newspaper comics, wallpaper, cloth (socks and
bandannas work well), maps, blueprints, calendars, brown paper shopping
bags with your artwork.
- Use reusable
ribbons to decorate your packages. Save your bows and ribbons to use
year after year.
- Save this year’s
cards to make into next year’s gift tags.
Decorate Green
- Use flowers and
fruit to decorate with natural or home-made ornaments. Compost the
decorations after the holidays.
- Instead of
paper, use cloth napkins and tablecloths, china, and flatware for
parties.
- Carpool, take
the bus, bike, or walk to holiday affairs.
Clean-up Green
- Check with your town or city to find out where you can take your
undecorated live Christmas tree and other live decorations after the
holidays to be recycled.
- Recycle Block Styrofoam (it comes with new computers and
electronics) at the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, 5030 “old”
Pearl St., from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
- ONE MONTH ONLY: December 26-January 31 -- Wrapping paper will be
accepted at the Longmont, Boulder, Louisville and Broomfield drop-off
recycling centers in the boxes marked “Paperboard.”
- Please Note: Wrapping paper cannot go in the curbside recycling.
For a complete list of holiday waste reduction tips, visit Boulder County Resource Conservation Division’s
website of
www.bouldercountyrecycles.net
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