Holidays ecologically unfriendly

By Erin Kelly
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — The holidays can be hard on the environment.

Five million extra tons of trash are produced between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day in the United States each year, according to the Center for a New American Dream. And Americans burn up lots of polluting energy driving from mall to mall and plugging in all those Christmas lights.

But that doesn't mean you have to stay home, turn off the lights and make gifts out of recycled tires. There are easier ways to have a greener Christmas, environmental groups say.

Here are some tips offered by a variety of conservation groups through Environmental Media Services:

Recycling

• Save bows and ribbons. If every household reused just two feet of ribbon each year, it would save 38,000 miles of ribbon — enough to tie a bow around the Earth.

• Trim your holiday card list to include just close friends and relatives. If everyone sent one fewer card, it would save 50,000 cubic yards of paper.

• Use the good china, silverware and linen napkins at holiday parties. Your friends will be impressed, and you won't be throwing out a trash bag full of paper goods.

• Don't send your Christmas tree to the landfill. Its branches can be removed and chipped for garden mulch, and its trunk can be used for firewood.

Gift-giving

• For adults on your gift list, think about giving tickets to a basketball game, Broadway show, movie or other entertainment event instead of giving them more stuff. If they prefer stuff, consider giving them the ultimate recyclable — an antique.

• For serious green shopping, there are online directories of environmentally friendly stores and products. Web sites include: www.greenpages.org and www.ecomall.com.

• Your favorite uncle already has enough ties, but he probably doesn't have a naked mole rat. You can "adopt" one on his behalf through Friends of the National Zoo in Washington. The zoo also offers adoptions of panda bears, elephants and other creatures. The money is used to finance conservation programs that help save endangered species. Other zoos and wildlife groups offer similar packages.

Energy

• Consider shopping online for holiday gifts. You'll avoid the crowds and conserve gas.

• Go ahead and put up the Christmas lights, but put them on a timer so that they aren't on more than six hours a night.

• Popular icicle-style lights have more lights per linear foot than regular bulb light strands, so use them sparingly.

• For each compact fluorescent bulb you substitute for an incandescent bulb in your home, you can afford to light a string of 100 minilights and still save energy, money, and the environment.

For more information on having a green holiday, see www.ems.org.