Eco-Friendly Tips
Green Holiday Tips
1. Send holiday greetings to family and friends via e-mail. If you prefer to send hand-written notes, make your own cards with paper you already have. Or look for holiday cards printed on recycled paper. Eliminate envelope waste by sending postcards or folding and sealing notes so you can address them on the outside.
2. Print holiday party flyers on recyclable pastels -- bright red and green paper hard to recycle!
3. For holiday parties, use reusable glass or plastic ware, and cloth napkins.
4. When shopping for gifts and holiday food, carry your own canvas bag or backpack, or reuse shopping bags.
5. Instead of material gifts, give gifts of your time or expertise. Consider gift certificates - for restaurants, movies, babysitting, etc. - or give consumable items such as baked goods.
6. If you buy gifts, look for durable and re-usable items and resist the latest "fad". Purchase gifts from local vendors, or that were made locally. Consider gifts made from recycled materials.
7. Wrap gifts in fabric, comics or your own decorated, reused paper. Create special cloth gift bags or decorated boxes that can be reused and traded among family members each year.
8. Make gift tags or decorations from last year's cards.
9. Reuse recyclable and recycled-content boxes and packing for mailing gifts.
10. Consider alternatives to a cut tree, such as a live tree, decorated house plant, or artificial tree.
11. Recycle any holiday waste from your household, see local options below.
12. Make a New Year's resolution to buy recycled products for your office and at home.