Merry Ecofriendly Christmas From The Boothologist! December 19 2018
As a leader in designing and fabricating ecofriendly tradeshow booths for organizations of all sizes, Boothster understands how important it is to recognize the impact that we have on the environment. The Boothologist is always looking for ways to reduce waste and minimize the environmental impact of our custom tradeshow booth designs, and that is why this year we are again encouraging all our clients, colleagues, family and friends to be aware of the excellent opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle during the Christmas season! As we have written about before, Americans throw away more garbage during the Christmas season than at any time of the year! According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it is estimated that during the holidays Americans generate over 1 million tons of household waste. For example, all of the online shopping associated with Christmas results in a tremendous amount of discarded cardboard packaging. All of the presents under the tree create massive amounts of decorative paper waste that ends up in landfills and all the great food served at holiday dinners adds tons of leftovers to the trash.
Images courtesy of MarkBuckawicki, James Nash, and Crnorizec on Wikimedia Commons
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That is why the Boothologist would like to remind you that this holiday presents a fantastic opportunity to reduce your family’s waste and make a real difference in the amount of garbage that ends up in the landfill after the festivities end. With a little bit of planning, it is entirely possible to significantly reduce your waste without sacrificing any holiday joy! One way to limit the amount of wasted packaging used to deliver presents from online retailers is to come up with your gift shopping list before going online and try to consolidate your gift deliveries into as few shipments as possible! Also, foregoing online shopping and “shopping locally” can not only reduce packaging waste, but also help support local business!
Image courtesy of "Riponwisconsin" on Wikimedia Commons
Limiting the use of gift wrapping paper is another way to put a big dent in your family’s holiday waste (and cleanup) after Christmas. You can avoid using paper entirely by using reusable decorative tins, baskets or boxes! You can also replace traditional wrapping paper with newspaper, colorful pages torn from magazines for wrapping small gifts or even old maps! If you do buy wrapping paper, look for types made of recycled paper. For those who enjoy the beauty of wrapping paper, you can also unwrap gifts carefully and save the paper wrappings for reuse next year!
Image courtesy of A Creative Mint
For many people, large family meals during the holidays are a great opportunity to spend time with family members and create great memories. They are also great opportunities to reduce food waste with a little bit of planning! For example, while preparing for a holiday meal, you can take inventory of what is already in the pantry and then develop a menu based on what’s already available. You can also serve food in shifts, so the dishes don’t sit out as long and have a better chance of being reheated and eaten the following day. Finally, for those with large meals planned, you can get in touch with a food recovery group or shelter in advance so that you can arrange for the leftovers to be picked in a timely manner and brought to people in need!
Image courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard on Wikimedia Commons
Whatever your holiday traditions may be, Boothster encourages everyone to think outside the box when coming up with ways to reduce our waste this holiday season. From everyone here at Boothster we wish you a Merry Recyclable Christmas!