Posted on: Sunday, November 25, 2007
Green up your holidays
Gannett News Service
The holiday season is a way to "green up" your family's special days. Some easy ways from Doreen Nagle, author of "But I Don't Feel Too Old To Be A Mommy" (HCI, $12.95):
Shop green. When shopping for holiday gifts, food and supplies, go green by bringing your own reusable plastic or fabric tote bags with you to pack up your purchases. Sturdy, reusable shopping bags for this purpose seem to be for sale everywhere lately. You may also want to stash a few in the trunk of your car for spontaneous shopping stops. An alternative is to carry some of the plastic and paper bags you've accumulated from past shopping trips and hand those to the cashier to pack your newly purchased items in.
Save on gas by bunching errands together. Make a list of what needs to get done and where you need to go to do it. Group errands together according to which end of town you need to be in, and map out your stops in geographical order before you leave home. You'll also save some wear and tear on your nerves. Plus, do the obvious when you can: bike, carpool, walk and use public transportation.
Repurpose paper. By all means make lists and even check them twice, but use recycled paper to write them on.
Buy less packaging. Refuse to buy a product that makes use of superfluous packaging just for the purpose of marketing the product. E-mail the company and let them know that while you like their product, you do not want to pay for extraneous packaging that will only wind up in the trash.
Wrap presents by turning paper bags inside out and cutting to fit. Give the kids some crayons and markers and let them loose with their design creativity.
