Environmental Club Shares Earth-Friendly Holiday Tips
Mid-Pen's Environmental Club created a newsletter to help our community celebrate the holidays while being kind to planet Earth. Read on for their holiday tips.
General Holiday Tips
- Avoid metallic
- Avoid glitter
- Don't use tinsel
- Recycle wrapping paper
- Turn off decorative lights during the day or while you're away
- Reduce overall food waste
- Compost all extra food, and buy local organic products!
Wrapping Paper Alternatives
- Fabric
- Paper wrapping paper - avoid the shiny parts
- Reusable gift bags
- Baskets
- Pretty but unwrapped boxes
- Newspaper
- Don't recycle any wrapping paper with…
- Glitter
- Velvet
- Metallic colors
- Small amounts of tape can be recycled, though large amounts should be put in the trash.
Ribbons
- Fiber/string ribbons can be recycled! Get those!
- Don't recycle any ribbons with glitter, metallic colors, or anything shiny
- Cut all tied ribbons in half before recycling or trashing them to avoid choking animals
- BAGS
- Reuse holiday gift bags!
- Avoid bags with glitter, metallic colors, or shiny parts! They can't be recycled
Holiday Baking Clean Up
Recycle:
- Clean aluminum
- Clean saran wrap
- Empty ingredient packages
- Don't recycle:
- Anything with food residue
- CLEAN chocolate coin foil CAN be recycled!
Food
Try to buy:
- Pesticide-free
- Organic
- Local foods (farmers markets)
- COMPOST extra food waste!
Environmental Gift Ideas
For animal and plant lovers:
- Adopt an endangered animal or donate to an environmental organization in someone's name!
- Adopt an elephant
- Adopt a wolf
- Plants!
- Gift bee-friendly plants
- Gift butterfly plants
- Gift trees
- For foodies:
- A sustainable coffee shop gift card or ground coffee
- Verve coffee shop in Palo Alto
Practical Gifts for Anyone Trying to be More Eco-Friendly
- Reusable face masks
- water bottles
- Farmer's market gift card
- Homemade gifts
- Cookie mix in a jar
- DIY garden
Gift Tips
- Gifts that don't require batteries
- Stuff stockings with natural, local treats such as oranges
Shopping
- Online shopping
- Choose minimal packaging
- If there's no option for minimal packaging, email the seller to request environmentally friendly shipping
- Email the seller to avoid packaging peanuts
- Recycle or reuse all boxes, bags, and tissue paper
- Shopping in real life
- Try to complete shopping in one trip
- Carpool when traveling to shopping centers
- Use public transportation as much as possible
Decorations
Christmas Trees:
- Alternative trees such as Trader Joe's Rosemary trees
- Keep your artificial trees for the long-term
- Make sure plastic trees are free from toxins such as fake snow!
- Use energy-saving LED lights on a timer.
- Recycle your real trees or buy them from your local nursery/farm
- Get or make sustainable ornaments
New Year Celebration:
- Avoid metallic confetti! Use paper instead.
- DO NOT RELEASE BALLOONS. They WILL choke a bird.
- Avoid glitter decorations
Travel
- Transport
- Try carbon offsetting your flights if you can
- Research more eco-friendly airlines if possible
- Prioritize public transit during your trip
- Residence
- Look for eco-friendly places to stay (hotels with solar power, effective waste treatment, etc.)
Behavior
- Try and minimize the use of disposable travel items
- Be respectful of the environment you visit
- Conserve water and limit energy use
- Avoid harmful recreational activities
- Choose eco-friendly souvenirs
Decorations
- Recycle Christmas lights!
- Use natural decorations (branches, pinecones, dried fruits)
- Decorate a tree for the birds
- Reuse or buy second-hand decor
Places to Donate
- Arbor Day Foundation
- National Park Foundation
- Sierra Club
- news