Did you know that Americans throw away 25% more garbage per household during the holidays? From the feast we cook, the gifts and decorations, to traveling we tend to consume more resources and generate more waste than any other time of the year.
If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we all sent one card less, we'd save 50,000 cubic yards of paper.
Here are several ways that you can make this holiday season the GREENEST yet:
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Send holiday e-cards instead of paper greeting cards or make sure the ones you buy have recycled content material.
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When shipping, reuse foam peanuts or drop them off at your local delivery store.
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Use reusable grocery and shopping bags and make sure to recycle the non-reusable ones at your local grocery store.
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Eliminate using disposable plates, cups, napkins, and silverware. If you do buy disposable products look for ones with recycled content.
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Compost your left over food- it's easy and a great fertilizer! Find out more information about compost here at
Composting 101.
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Save all gift-wrapping and decorations to reuse later or wrap gifts in old maps, posters, sheet music, fabric scraps or wallpaper scraps.
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Have clearly marked recycling containers at your holiday party.
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Cook holiday meals in recyclable and recycled content pans such as aluminum.
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If your holiday gifts include new electronic gadgets and you need to discard your older electronics, you can recycle them at the Brunswick County Landfill year around at no charge.
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Recycle or properly dispose of all cooking grease at the Brunswick County Landfill.
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Make sure to turn off or unplug holiday decorations when they are not in use. Timers work perfect for this.
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Be sure holiday decorations are not placed on or obstructing air vents.
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When cooking, use your microwave oven as much as possible or plan your oven baking to avoid continuously
reheating the oven.
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Use LED holiday lights. They use about 99 percent less energy than traditional holiday bulbs and last up to 100,000 hours when used indoors. Plus, if one bulb goes out, the rest of the string still works!!
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Reduce your light display by one or two strands. You may not even notice the subtle change.
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Defrost frozen items in the refrigerator, not under running water.
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When washing dishes keep washing soap usage to a minimum. It helps reduce the amount of rinse water needed.
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Don't run the kitchen faucet continuously while washing dishes, wash them all then rinse them all at once.
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Let pots and pans soak instead of letting the water run while you clean them.
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Remember t
o recycle your Christmas tree, the Brunswick County Landfill will be accepting them between 12/26/2014 and 1/31/2015, free of charge from all county residents and property owners.
Finally, as the holidays come to a close, have everyone go through their old items and recycle or donate any unwanted items to a local charity.
