3 Tips To Be More Eco-Friendly This Holiday Season

Did you know the Christmas Holiday is the most unsustainable time of year? Global waste increases by 25-30% this time of year and most of that waste come from packaging, wrapping paper, cards and food waste.

Both the US and Canada rank in the top 10 most unsustainable countries in the world and both countries actively celebrate this season.

There are often two main mindsets this time of year; those who don't know this is a wasteful time of year and those who know but don't know how to change it.

So, talking to the first group of people, here are a few startling facts.

• Each year over 7 million trees are sent to a landfill each season.
• 100 000 tons of greenhouse gases are produced by rotting trees annually.
• It's estimated that 1 billion cards (in the UK alone) will be thrown out after Christmas and 2.6 billion cards in the US.
• Roughly 227 000 miles of wrapping paper is thrown out annually.
• 40% of total food is wasted in the US.

And the list goes on and on.

Now, talking to the second group of people, there is hope.

There are ways to reduce your waste without completely disrupting your holiday routine. It involves switching things up, reducing some things and overall being a little more mindful this time of year.

We can switch up the paper we use and how we dispose of our trees and we can reduce the packaging and overall gifts that we give and we can be mindful of the types of food and how much we buy.

What can we do to reduce our waste and carbon footprint this time of year while still having a fun holiday:

1. Switch up your tree and decoration habits. 

Tree's and decorations are a big contributor to the overall unsustainable nature of this holiday. There is so much waste with most of the trees ending up in the garbage and ultimately in landfills causing a lot of greenhouse gases.

Decorations are also bought at record rates and generally use a lot of plastic. They aren't meant to last a long time because consumerism works when people continuously buy things. 

To mitigate the tree waste try finding a tree disposal site where they find ways to reuse the trees. Many organizations grind the trees down into sawdust to be reused in landscaping. You can also dispose of the trees yourself. If you have a fireplace or know someone who does you can chop it up and use it.

For decorations, if you take good care of the ones you have they'll last a long time. Receiving second-hand decorations from family and friends is a good way to give decorations more life as well. If you do need more decorations you can also go the DIY route. There are lots of great ideas on Pinterest.

2. Gifts and how you wrap them.

Did you know, most wrapping paper is generally not recyclable because of the foil and wax? So all of those beautifully wrapped gifts that you spent a ton of time wrapping will just have to be tossed into the garbage.

The gifts themselves, especially for young kids, typically come with a lot of single-use plastic and the gifts themselves are often made with a lot of plastic themselves. We tend to overbuy these types of gifts for kids and since they grow quickly and are learning what they like and dislike, they do not use these gifts for very long. 

There are some great alternatives to wrapping paper that are either compostable or recyclable. You can use brown paper (this can be found at stores), maps, newspaper, cloth, clothing, etc. There are many ways to make these items fancy and festive.

For gifts, try purchasing fewer items, gifts that contain less plastic packaging, and gifts that age well. Try to buy toys that would be appropriate as they get older. It might take a few extra minutes but shop around for items that don't include packaging. Alternatively, you could also get them experiential gifts. Take them on a ski trip, to a waterpark, ziplining, etc.

3. Holiday travelling can be a large pollution contributor

During the holidays there are a lot more cars on the road, which means a lot more traffic. More traffic means more traffic jams, which leads to more idling. Idling is a large contributor to pollution.

People also take a lot more airplanes and put a rush on online purchased gifts (which require airplane travel). Airplanes contribute heavily to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

To help with this, you can begin to be mindful of how you do your holiday travelling. Carpooling when going for dinner, plan your shopping routes so you can do a lot of walking instead of driving around, and try to find more direct flights (if possible).

Also, do your online shopping well in advance so rush shipping isn't necessary. When you're given an option choose ground shipping. Many delivery companies are switching to more eco-friendly forms of fuel. Do a little bit of research before choosing your shipping company, if you can.

Starting to be mindful and switching up some of our habits this holiday season is a good way to begin to reduce the waste associated with this holiday. There are many great alternatives and every year there are more and more as more people are urging companies to create them.

But the best tip I can give you is simply to be more mindful this holiday. Think about the plastic packaging, think about realistically how much food your family needs over the holidays, think about deeper, thoughtful, and longer-lasting gifts.

Are you interested in more suggestions for holiday eco-friendly tips? I've created a one page checklist with lots of great ideas for you for FREE. Grab your copy NOW.