According to Planet Green:
2,000: Christmas trees planted per acre on average at Christmas tree farms.
18: People who get their daily oxygen requirement from one acre of Christmas trees.
10: Years it takes a Christmas tree to mature enough to be cut.
In light of these statistics, we think it’s a good time to stop and think about ways in which we can lessen our impact on Mother Earth this season.
1. Christmas Trees
Though the use of pesticides on Christmas trees has declined by 50 percent over the last decade, many are still sprayed. Look for trees that were grown using sustainable methods and without pesticides. These sellers are usually either certified organic by the Department of Agriculture or are members of Certified Naturally Grown. If you choose to have a vendor cut trees and set up shop on a convenient street corner for your perusal, make sure the trees come from a local farm.
The Sierra Club estimates that each year, 10 million Christmas trees end up in landfills. Many cities offer programs to turn your tree to mulch or wood chips. Call (800) CLEANUP or visit Earth 911 to find a tree-recycling program near you.
2. Holiday Lights
When it comes to outdoor decorations, to truly go green means not using them at all. If this is not an option for you, use energy-efficient LED lights, which use almost 90% less power but are several hundred times brighter than traditional lights. By making the switch, you can save up to $50 on your energy bills during the holiday season!
Give the money you save on your electric bill to an environmental charity to support green projects.
3. Greeting Cards
While it’s an easy way to spread the joy to everyone you know, greeting card paper, envelopes, and postage flood recycling bins. So, reuse them! Here are a few of our favorite ways:
1. Cut up old cards into tree ornaments, collages, or wall hangings.
2. Donate your cards to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children . This charity recycles old cards by making brand-new ones. The money from these new cards is donated to the help children who were the victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment.
3. Cut the design off an old card and glue it to card stock for a “new” greeting card with homemade appeal.
4. Wrapping Paper
Create festive wrappings by stringing magazine pages or newspapers together for homemade paper, or use brown paper bags or scrap paper decorated with non-toxic paint. Better yet, buy a gift within a gift—a computer bag can wrap a new laptop, towels, scarves, or sheets can wrap kitchen/bath items—or just about anything else you can think of. Our favorite wrapping paper is a reusable bag! Like @sarasophia tweeted: “Metallic gift wrap is NOT recyclable! We like to wrap our gifts in reusable shopping bags.” Hey, we do too! Use a bow, ribbon, or simple string to dress the presents up. If every family wrapped just three gifts this way, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
5. Shopping Bags
Our personal favorite, something we can all do year-round to help Mother Earth—bring your own reusable shopping bag with you to carry home your gifts or groceries.
