The holidays are a time of spending. The economy has cut down many people’s worst spending habits. Consumers are only purchasing on necessity. That is a good thing for the environment. Reducing spending, reusing, and re-gifting are good ways to save money and contribute to saving the planet. Try turning economic misfortunes into opportunity this season by greening your Christmas. Here are a few more suggestions:
Eat Less
At Thanksgiving and Christmas every year families gather to a smorgasbord of goods on the table. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, aunts, and uncles crowd the table to consume turkey, ham, roast, greens, dressing, cornbread, pie, cake, macaroni and cheese, and a host of other foods. We eat until we are completely stuffed and can’t get anything more into our bodies and then we retire to movies, football and video games. An hour later we come back to pick over the best items and eat again. The food gets put away and the dishes are cleaned. Three days later we might be out shopping, eating and going to the movies while the food in the fridge rots.
There are many reasons to consume less food during the holidays, including your health. The boon to your health is that eating portion sizes of your favorite foods and alternating the contents of your plate saves you from artery-clogging over-eating that happens all too often during the end of the year.
Consuming less can only help the environment. The less you buy the less you waste. The less people buy, the less goods will be created. Less demand, less supply. Less supply can only mean that less of natures creates and land will be harmed from America’s glutton behavior.
Re-use before you recycle
There are many options to green your holidays. Some of these include re-gifting previous items or reusing old products.
Re-gifting is the easiest thing to do. Rather than throw items in the garbage that you never used, re-gift them to a group that did not share the gift. An example, if a family member gives you a sweater you hate, take the gift out of that group and re-gift it to someone at work or church. Then, someone can enjoy something you did not like. Remember, one person’s garbage is another person’s treasure. That can actually save on the many wasted items that collect in households and then end up in garbage dumps with little to no use.
Re-use any good items you find. Do-it-yourself design shows are abundant in the reality TV world we live in. Take some tips from designers and re-tool items to suit the holiday spirit. Instead of throwing out an old tree, get a can of flocking and spray the tree white. Instead of tossing out cans and drums, grab some decorative items from the local dollar store and decorate them in holiday colors. These items can be used to hold nuts, or decorate the outside of your home instead of lights, which consume a lot of energy.
Make greening your holiday a family event. Moms can initiate green activities but the entire family should make it their mission to consume less, re-use, re-gift and save some natural resources.
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