The holidays are suddenly upon us, and with that holiday magic comes delicious food, parties, and gifts of all kinds! Although this will be another holiday season in a pandemic, we can still find ways to safely celebrate and connect with our loved ones. If you are participating in any December festivities, it’s important to reflect on how our decision-making around the holidays can affect the environment. From the period between Thanksgiving to New Years, the United States creates 25% more waste than any other time of the year. This extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage. As we all know, garbage ends up in landfills, which in turn release methane, pollute our waterways, and take up precious animal and plant habitat.
As you prepare for your celebrations and finalize your presents, consider giving our planet a gift as well. Read the tips below on how to reduce your holiday waste and carbon footprint.
As you prepare for your celebrations and finalize your presents, consider giving our planet a gift as well. Read the tips below on how to reduce your holiday waste and carbon footprint.
Food waste: As we prepare for our holiday meal we often become overzealous with our large portions and numerous dishes. This can lead to food waste, which is especially harmful in the landfill because food is broken down anaerobically and results in methane emissions, which is a greenhouse gas 70% more potent than carbon dioxide. Follow these guidelines to reduce your food waste.
- Meal planning: Make a list before you go to the store/farmers market so you don't overbuy and end up with spoiled food. Be realistic about how much food you really need and the amount each guest will eat. For example, instead of making 3 normal sized pies, consider making 3 mini pies so you still get the variety but not all the leftovers!
- Have guests serve themselves and use smaller plates so they can go back for seconds if they’re still hungry. It’s much easier to recover food from a serving plate than it is from someone’s individual plate.
- Hold onto your leftovers and create new meals from them. Check out the WNC Food Waste Solutions website for holiday leftover recipe inspiration: http://wncfoodwaste.org/holiday/
- Once you’ve eaten all the food you can, compost anything that has gone bad. If you don’t already have a composting system, check out our videos and lessons about how to start your own: https://www.ashevillegreenworks.org/composting-information.html
Gifts: Giving presents to the people in our lives is a beautiful way to show our love, however many material gifts do not serve our planet. Consider these options to reduce your gift waste footprint.
- Experiential gifts; e.g. museum tickets/massages/concerts/etc
- Choose sustainable companies; e.g. Ware (https://www.wareavl.com), Asheville Goods (https://ashevillegoods.com/)
- Buy local to get your gifts in person and reduce shipping materials and the transportation carbon costs; e.g. art from the River Arts District/jewelry from craft markets/chocolate from French Broad Chocolates
- Buy gift made from recycled materials
- Regift items you no longer use; e.g. books/games
Wrapping paper: Traditional gift wrap is unfortunately not recyclable so it’s important to save and reuse any wrapping paper that’s gifted to you, and use alternatives such as the ones below.
- Fabric wrapping; e.g. fabric bags/old shirts/goodwill purchases
- Old/unused paper; e.g. magazines/newspaper/paper bags/scrap paper
- Jars/Tins/Pouches
- Boxes with yarn
- Baskets
- Inside out chip bags wrapped in yarn
- Brown paper on a roll— get creative and decorate the paper yourself
Ecards: Instead of sending out a holiday card through the mail (which require materials to create and greenhouse gases to deliver), try using an ecard instead! Use this site to create your ecard for free: https://www.123cards.com/christmas-ecards/
Trees: Recycling your tree is easy in Asheville. Follow these guidelines to ensure that your tree gets to the proper place: https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/how-to-dispose-of-or-recycle-that-christmas-tree-2/. Better yet, consider a potted Christmas tree that you can continue to use for years to come!
Lights: In the United States, Christmas lights use up more electricity than some economically disadvantaged countries, such as El Salvador or Ethiopia, do in a year. Most of our electricity is produced from fossil fuels, which result in greenhouse emissions and the release of other pollutants. Make sure to turn your light off during the day and don’t keep them on all night long. Consider solar lights like these: https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/g37975001/best-solar-christmas-lights/
New years/holiday party: Throw an eco-friendly holiday party using the following tips.
- As much as you can serve food with reusable cutlery/dishes/etc. If you’re concerned about sanitation during the COVID-19 pandemic use compostable dish ware and cutlery which you can find at Ingles, West Village Market, Whole Foods, and other Asheville stores. If you use compostable material make sure to sign up for the City of Asheville’s Food-Scrap-Drop-Off Program here: https://www.ashevillenc.gov/service/backyard-composting/. These items cannot be composted in our backyard composting bin, they must go to an industrial composting facility.
- Use table cloths and napkins that can be washed and reused.
- Put out clearly labeled recycling and composting bins.
- Decorate using compostable materials. Gather pine cones, fallen sticks, greenery, and winter berries to arrange around your home. Trim branches to make a wreath. Collect packing-material paper from packages/old scrap paper/newspaper/magazines to make these decorative items:https://feltmagnet.com/crafts/Party-decorating-on-a-budget-___-beautiful-paper-decorations. Try to stay away from plastic decorations and non-recyclable materials.
- Distribute invitations through email or text instead of paper.
By Livia Charles, Sustainability Coordinator at Asheville GreenWorks
