How to Go Green for the Holidays

If you want to enjoy a clean and sustainable future and leave your children and grandchildren with the same standard of living that you are enjoying, it is important that we take better care of the home we all share, our Planet Earth. The holidays offer many opportunities to save money, cut energy use and help balance our home' s greenhouse gas budget-the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere to produce goods or electrical power.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. When you go shopping, whether for groceries or gifts, bring your own bags. Plastic bags often end up endangering birds and paper bags are expensive to produce.
2. Adjust the temperature in your refrigerator and freezer. Of all household appliances, refrigerators use the most electricity. You can maximize the appliances' efficiency by setting your refrigerator at 37 degrees and your freezer at 0. Look for energy efficient appliances is you are buying new ones.
3. Look for the "Green Seal" on paper products. Napkins, paper towels and toilet paper that meet recycling and bleaching standards carry the seal.
4. Pay attention to packaging. Look at the amount of plastic, cardboard, and other materials used to package your purchase. Choose products with the smallest amount of excess packaging.
5. Making coffee? Save trees by replacing the filter papers in your coffee maker with reusable filters that you simply need to rinse out.
6. If you use disposable dinnerware, buy the kind that won't clog landfills or kill trees. Some new products are made from corn, potatoes and limestone and cost less than six cents per plate.
7. Support local farms and farmer's markets. When you purchase locally, it helps to decrease our dependence on oil and cut back on gas emissions.
8. Use your creativity in gift giving and gift wrapping. Make your own wrapping paper from magazine pages. If you buy wrapping paper, look for some made of recycled paper. Don't wrap reusable tins, boxes and baskets. If you are shipping gifts, use recyclable materials as space fillers.
9. If you send greeting cards, look for ones made from recycled materials. Consider sending greeting cards by email, making a phone call or make a donation to a charity in lieu of sending cards.

Tips & Warnings

• Recycle, recycle, recycle.
• If you are receiving piles of catalogs that you don't want, call the company's 1-800 number and ask to be removed from their mailing list.

Who Can Help:

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