South Coast Solar

Holiday Green Living Tips

During the holiday season, waste disposal increases 25% in the United States, causing an extra 5 billion pounds of waste in the landfills according to the Medical University of South Carolina. Plus, travelers will be logging tons of miles and creating tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Here are tips to help you plan ahead to reduce your waste and green your gift giving this year.

1. Don’t Buy Wrapping Paper
Reuse old wrapping paper or put your gifts in reusable bags or boxes. Be creative about giving old materials new life-scraps of fabric, magazines, or calendars make great patchwork bags or collage wrapping paper.

2. Send Tree-free Holiday Cards
Search the National Green Pages for cards made from kenapf, hemp, and other tree-free resources. Or, send e-cards and avoid the wait at the post office for stamps.

3. Hold a Zero Waste Holiday Party
Host a zero-waste party. Minimize the garbage by asking people to bring their own cups, plates and utensils if you don’t have enough of your own. Use fabric tablecloths and napkins. Then be sure to recycle any post-party cans and bottles and compost food scaps.

4. Consider the Lifecycle of Electronic Gifts
Some of the most popular gift items for children and teens are electronics like computers, video games, and music devices. But the manufacturing and disposal of these items creates significant human health and environmental hazards. To learn more about the environmental impact of computers and electronic devices, check out the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. The Recycled Video Games Network is a great resource to dispose of old equipment or buy recycled games and systems for less, reducing the amount of new materials made

5. Give Gifts from the Heart
Instead of spending money on commercial goods, give the gift of your time and talent to loved ones this year. Offer to make dinner, walk the dog, help with gardening or home repairs, or invite friends over for Fair Trade coffee and tea.

6. Give the Gift of a Better World
Make a donation in honor of a loved one. Choose a cause that addresses an issue that you and your friends and family members care about and support. Green America offers gift memberships at special rates during the holiday. Green America gift memberships are a great way to support our work for a green future while introducing more people to the ideas of just and sustainable purchasing and investing.

7. Green Your Holiday Travel
If you are one of the many people planning to log a lot of travel miles this holiday season, don’t forget to look into green options for getting around. Better World Travel Club can help you offset the carbon emissions from your travel through their Travel Cool program. Plus, Green America has partnered with Native Energy to help you offset your energy impact, including travel impact, fund the production of more wind energy, and generate support Green America’s Green Energy program.

8. Buy Green Gifts
If you choose to give presents over the holidays, shop with green businesses listed in the National Green Pages. This year, a number of green businesses are offering special discounts to make green gift giving even easier.

9. Avoid Toys Made with PVC plastic
70% of PVC is used in construction, but it is also found in everyday plastics, including some children’s toys. Vinyl chloride, the chemical used to make PVC, is a known human carcinogen. Also, additives, such as lead and cadmium, are sometimes added to PVC to keep it from breaking down; these additives can be particularly dangerous in children’s toys. PVC is also the least recycled plastic.

10. Recycle Packaging From Gifts
To reduce environmental impacts, it is important to recycle all cardboard packaging and peanuts or other Styrofoam packing that comes with gifts or purchases as these items will not de-compost in a landfill but can be used over and over again for packaging and shipping. The National Green Pages contains several listings for easy drop-off centers for both types of waste.

Green Living Tip #2 : Recycle

We know recycling is beneficial, but here are some facts (some may be startling) that may make you think seriously about the importance of recycling.

1. About 40% of the waste in the U.S. is paper, but nationwide we only recycle about 25-30% of our paper waste.

2. Americans throw away close to the equivalent of 30 million trees a year, just from newsprint alone.

3. In America we discard enough motor oil per year to fill 120 supertankers.

4. In the United States right now, landfills are filling up and closing at the rate of approximately 2 a day.

5. By recycling an aluminum can per day we can save enough energy to operate a television set for 3 hours.

6. A glass bottle thrown away today will still be there in the year 3000.

7. In the United States, one in every six trucks is a garbage truck.

8. You would be able to circle the earth 436 times per year with the Styrofoam cups that are used in the United States.

These statistics are accurate and valid; they help to illustrate the importance of recycling in the United States. Start taking an active role in helping your community recycle and better your environment and prevent global warming.

Green Living Tip #1 : Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) Bulbs: Change a Light Bulb and Change the World

If you want to change the world, start by changing a few light bulbs. It is one of the best things you can do for the environment—and your budget.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if every U.S. household replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that by replacing regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs at the same minimal rate, Americans would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year. On top of that, replacing one regular light bulb with an approved compact fluorescent light bulb would save consumers $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs use at least two-thirds less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, and they last up to 10 times longer. Compact fluorescent light bulbs also generate 70 percent less heat, so they are safer to operate and can also reduce energy costs associated with cooling homes and offices.