5 Ways to Go Green This Holiday Season!
The holidays are here! Are YOU celebrating sustainably?
We started Steel Straw to help protect the environment. Read our checklist below for how to minimize your impact this holiday season:
We started Steel Straw to help protect the environment. Read our checklist below for how to minimize your impact this holiday season:
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Wrap Your Gifts Sustainably: Did you know Americans throw away 25% more trash than normal between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve? If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields! How can you help? Consider wrapping your gifts in second-hand fabric scraps, newspaper, reused paper bags or old posters.
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Decorate Responsibly: Consider using fewer or no lights. Energy efficient LED strings are a good middle ground, especially when plugged into a timer to save electricity. Avoid plastic decorations and save money by using natural materials in your yard, and items you already own. Make ornaments out of reused paper and scrap ribbon.
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Eat Meals With Minimal Impact: Serve up some new traditions! At your holiday dinner table, serve a greater number of vegetable- or grain-based dishes, with less meat. Buy ingredients from your local farmers market, and choose organic whenever possible. Serve food in washable utensils, plates, and glasses, rather than disposable items.
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Give Gifts That Make A Difference: Instead of buying plastic, consider making charitable donations in your loved ones names. Select gifts that don't require much packaging like metal straws, gift certificates, tickets to a show, or something you've handmade.
- Do Better Than A Christmas Tree: Trees fight climate change - don't kill them! Instead of killing a perfectly good tree, use a living tree you can plant outside or keep as a houseplant after the holidays. You can also make Christmas "trees" out of fallen branches, cardboard, a ladder, and much more! We advise against buying artificial plastic trees as they are typically manufactured with petroleum-derived plastics. As a consequence they are non-biodegradable and non-recyclable.
