With Christmas right around the corner, chances are you are pretty busy getting ready for the big day: buying gifts for the family, picking out a tree, getting all the ornaments and decorations ready to hang, and drawing up plans for the perfect Christmas dinner.
Although it might be the furthest thing from your mind at the moment, but the US sees a substantial rise in household waste production. According to the EPA, the waste generated by Americans between thanksgiving and New Year’s Day increases by 25 percent (almost 1 million extra tons). In preparing for the holidays, we hope you take a moment to implement some of these waste-saving tips:
- When shopping, bring along some reusable tote bags to carry your gifts. If you need to use the bag that the store gives you, remember to bring it with you the next time you go shopping.
- Wrap gifts in newspaper or recycled wrapping paper.
- Unplug holiday lights during the daytime. Not only will this save you money on your energy bill, but it will also extend the lives of the lights
- If you are buying batteries to go along with an electronic gift, buy ones that can be recharged. It will save them money on buying more batteries down the line, and keep less dead batteries out of the trash.
- After the holidays, most Christmas trees will end up in the landfill. Before hauling your tree off to the dump, check with your cities waste department to see if they can collect and mulch trees for later use. (Buying an artificial tree is always an option as well)
- If possible, buy gifts that are made from recycled materials.
From everyone here at Fast Haul, have a happy, waste-free holiday!
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