Greening Your Christmas

 

Greening Your Christmas


  • stop buying non-recyclable wrapping paper printed with petroleum based inks and dyes

  • use wraps made out of recycled paper

  • use a gift bags that can be reused many times over and over again

  • Use materials from around the house such as old wall paper, the Sunday comics, old fabric etc.

  • more than 300 000 trees are felled each year to produce all the holidays cards sold in North America

  • to save money and trees send e-cards instead of paper cards, check out www.hallmark.com, www.Americangreetings.com, www.bluemountain.com

  • make your own cards from recycled materials

  • if you are determined to send cards choose cards made from recycled paper and that benefit non-profit organizations hometown.aol.com/naturecards/page1.html

  • to save on fossil fuels support your local artisans by buying local arts and crafts

  • look for stores that sell gifts made from recycled materials rather than mass produced imports

  • go to craft shows where you can buy directly from the artist, Kempenfest here in Barrie is held on the first long weekend in August

  • buy gifts from fair- trade shops

Make the following gift baskets:

1. gourmet 2. organic personal care 3. homemade coupons for anything the person might need help with 4. a variety of drinks such as specialty teas, coffees, vitamin and fruit drinks etc. 5. a variety of fruits and nuts 6. coupon books for activities the person loves such as golf

  • give a gift that does not need to be wrapped like a donation to a worthwhile organization in someone’s name, check out www.nrdc.org

  • many conservation groups have sponsorship programs where you can adopt animals in people’s names, check out www.worldwildlife.org

  • sponsoring a foster child in their name, World Vision 1-800-268-4888

www.worldvision.ca

  • avoid giving gift cards as they are made from plastic (petroleum-based) and you waste gasoline driving around to the various stores , instead put the money in a hand decorated card in a basket with small useful person items

  • avoid artificial Christmas trees as most contain PVC’s (a potential source of hazardous lead) and they clog up our landfill sites

  • buy a sustainable and pesticide free grown real Christmas trees



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