The holiday season is synonymous with festive parties and gift-wrapping. This also means festive paper products, which inevitably end up in the trash. This season try being more festive for the earth and use reusable and recycled products for eating, wrapping, and spreading holiday cheer.

• Use real plates, glasses, and silverware for your holiday gatherings. This will help reduce the 25% increase in waste Americans generate between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. If you want to use holiday patterns, but do not want to buy them, rent them!
• Wrap gifts in something other than wrapping paper. If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields! Be creative- use newspaper, magazines, or cloth to wrap presents, or give gifts that do not require a lot of wrapping, such as gift certificates or tickets. Avoid wrapping paper completely by using decorated tins and boxes.
• Reuse ribbons next year. If each family reused 2 feet of ribbon, it would save 38,000 miles worth of ribbon, enough to tie a bow around the earth.
• Buy better holiday cards. Each year, 2.65 billion holiday cards are sold in the US, enough to fill a football stadium 10 stories high. Look for cards made from recycled paper and avoid ones with glossy or shiny coatings since these cannot be recycled.
• Send party leftovers home with guests or donate to local food banks. At least 28 billion pounds of edible food is wasted each year.
• Use fewer shopping bags. There are several ways to do this: bring your own cloth bag or reuse old shopping bags, consider whether you need a bag for each purchase (small items might go in a purse or pocket, large items might be easier to carry), and consolidate your purchases into one or two bags.
• Reduce the catalog avalanche. If you receive unsolicited catalogs, call the toll free number to request your name and address be removed from their mailing list.

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