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Belated: My CC booths
Cause I neglectd to post these before: These ar ethe booths I did for the Conservation Consumerism fair.
Reducing your Christmas footprint
Simple tips to save money and help the enviornment this holiday season
The Christmas season is a time marked by increases in spending and in waste, as in many people's minds, it wouldn't be a proper Christmas with out the insanity of the mall rush and the piles of bags and wrappings that result. It's an intense consumer holiday that feeds both the nations economy, and it's waste stream. Most people are familiar with that bag of wrappings, bags, packing foam, hard plastic and other garbage left over after the last present has been opened and shelled from it's packaging, and the extra bag of garbage that goes to the curb, resulting in a 25% increase in the waste stream of the United States in the Christmas season, and that light feeling your wallet gets after paying all the bills in January. It's obviously a season with a high toll on both your bank and the planet.
But it doesn't have to be. With some simple actions, you can both save money, and reduce your impact on the Earth this holiday season.
Gifts from the Heart, Not from Walmart
Most everything in larger stores are factory made in places most likely not even in the country and have been shipped long distances, giving them a rather heavy environmental impact from fossil fuel usage, pollution, and the increase of packaging used to get them to you safely, adding to the personal costs needed to drive the distance to the big store to get the item. But these costs can easily be countered.
When you were younger, there was nothing wrong with giving your parents a grubby craft item, covered in glue and scribbled on with an oversized marker, that you had made yourself in school. For many, those kindergarten crafts are still hidden somewhere on the Christmas tree, giving your parents fond memories of when you were small. Though badly pasted and painted macaroni is no longer as acceptable, the same basic principle is. A homemade gift shows your care and affection for someone far better then grabbing a prepackaged gift package off the $1.99 shelf at your local super store, whether it be homemade fudge, a hand sewn pot-holder, a scrap book of photos, or other homemade craft.
Another misconception with holiday shopping is the belief that in order to get a *really good* gift, you need to drive miles away to an oversized mall, looking for a snazzy gadget or pretty looking dust catcher, when a local, practical gift would not only be better enjoyed, but be cheaper and easier to get, saving you both time and money. Local craft stores are perfect for getting gifts for people on your list that you have little idea what to get, as are heath food stores, where you can pick out various personal care products that are made to be environmentally friendly. Buying locally also means you have to drive less, saving on gas usage, which both saves you money and helps reduce fossil fuel usage and pollution.
Packaging is a large waste generator, so make sure to choose items that are minimally packaged in recyclable materials. Other practical gifts are reusable items, such as a refillable coffee mug or canvas shopping bag can help reduce the use and waste of plastics and helping the person you're buying for reduce their environmental impact all year round
For friends and relatives who life far away, a gift card is an easy choice that will save you much money in the post office. Small enough to fit in a normal envelope, it requires no more packaging then the card that would accompany any gift, saving on waste as well as shipping impacts.
Creative Wrapping
One of the biggest garbage pail fillers at Christmas time is wrapping paper. Chemically treated and often single use, it's often crumpled up and tossed out without a thought, as it's what's inside that counts, not how snazzy it looks on the outside. With that in mind, here are a few ideas for alternative wrappings you can use that are all reused paper:
Brown Bag
A reused brown grocery bag, turned inside out and coloured with crayons
Reused printer paper
The backside of a used printout that has been coloured with colour pencils with a childrens theme.
Magazine page
A page from a colour magazine. Since the picture chosen has a sports theme, it's perfect for wrapping a present for a sports enthusist.
Comics
A sheet of the Sunday colour comics.
Colour Newsprint
Last years wrappings
Wrapping paper saved from a previous gift and reused. With presents that you receive, rather then ripping open the wrapping, crumpling it up and tossing it away, carefully open it and fold the paper flat. You can reuse it for the next gift you'll be giving, or, if it's no longer usable, recycle it instead of putting it into a landfill.
Gift Bags
Reuseable over and over
Other ways of creativly recycling for the Holidays include making gift tags from old cards that were received the year before. If the back of the front image hasn't been written on, simply cut off the back half and write your message on the back of the front image.
[Sources: "Think outside of the box" Daniel Imhoff, Body and Soul Magazine, December 2005]
Decorations: The high cost of your festive front lawn
Come the holiday season, there's always a plethora of decoration options available, most of them large, plastic, or energy using. Large light and electric powered displays not only cause a heavier electric bill, they also cause light and, in the case of inflatable decorations, noise pollution as well. Most of these displays are only actively looked at one or two nights out of the year, and almost never by the people who put them up, and because almost all of these electric displays are mass produced, it's either a trend competition to get the latest, and often most expensive new decoration or have your display look just like that of the house down the block.
Instead of trying to dazzle the passersby or compete with the neighbors, a more economical and earth friendly way of decorating for the holiday season is to go with simple, natural, reusable and nonelectric decorations.
Because plastic are made from petroleum, which is a fossil fuel that is dwindling in supply, wooden items should be preferred over plastic ones. Natural pine wreaths as easy to find and are biodegradable and often look just as nice, if not nicer then their artificial reproductions. The natural scent of the pine will also add to the decoration, as it is a smell most people associate with the holiday season. Wood lawn decorations can be used instead of plastic ones, and often have a similar storage life. When the paint on a wooden decoration becomes old and flaky, it becomes 'Rustic' rather then simply looking old like plastic decorations do when faded.
When buying christmas lights, choose LED lights. LED light strings use 80 percent less electricity than comparable incandescent light strings, and the lights will last longer. They are also safer, as the LED lights do not produce the heat that of the incandescent bulbs.
Make sure almost all the decorations you buy are either going to be reused for multiple years, or are recyclable or compostable. Single use, disposable decorations not only tax your wallet, they tax the planet's resources and the landfills as well.
Things to avoid:
Inflatable displays: These are normally large pieces that stay inflated by blown air and become unable to stay upright in wind, or if the fabric rips. They require electricity to stay inflated and often have a motor that produces unpleasant noises that can be heard when viewing the display closely.
Animated lawn decorations: Anything that has a moving part is more likely to break then something stationary. The movement also requires electricity, and since most people viewing the display will be going by in a car, very few will even notice the movement.
Excessive lighting: Lights often use the most electricity of any holiday display, and often will be using that electric when no one is around to view it, or, if on an automatic timer, can be on in the daytime when the light won't even be noticed. Also, very bight displays, especially with those that include flashing lights, can be distractions to drivers going past, potentially causing an accident.
[Source: Energy Federation Incorporated http://www.efi.org/
----
Organic when it means more: Chocolate
Chocolate is one of the most common candies, found in almost every store that sells food, and even some that don't. It's the preferred sweet of many, yet few know where it comes from or how it's grown.
Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, which traditionally is grown in the shade of a thinned area of the rainforest, a method that preserves the diversity of the rainforest and only minimally alters it. However, increased demand for it has started the practice of full-sun cocoa farming, a method where the trees of the rainforest are cut down and cleared in order to expose the cocoa plant to more light. While this method does produce a higher yield of crops, it also makes the plant more prone to disease, insects and sun-related damage, which means heavy amounts of pesticides and fertilizers must be applied to the fields in order to keep the higher yields. On top of these rather large environmental issues, cocoa production also has human rights issues, ranging from issues of low wages, exposure to dangerous chemical pesticides, to slave labour. Because of all these heavy problems, chocolate is a very important food to be aware of.
Organic certified chocolate means that the cocoa has been grown with out pesticides or chemicals, reducing the heath hazard to both yourself and to the farm workers. While it's more expensive, it also tends to be higher quality and better tasting, meaning you need less of it to fulfill your cravings. Other labels to look for when buying include "Shade Grown" "Fair Trade Certified" and "Rainforest Alliance Certified"
[Sources: http://www.thegreenguide.com/reports/product.mhtml?id=6
"Chocolates Dark Side" Kate Slomkowski, E Magazine, Volume XVI, number 6, Novemeber/December 2005]
And because it's related: http://www.uglychristmaslights.com/2005_collection/the_strip.html
Reducing your Christmas footprint
Simple tips to save money and help the enviornment this holiday season
The Christmas season is a time marked by increases in spending and in waste, as in many people's minds, it wouldn't be a proper Christmas with out the insanity of the mall rush and the piles of bags and wrappings that result. It's an intense consumer holiday that feeds both the nations economy, and it's waste stream. Most people are familiar with that bag of wrappings, bags, packing foam, hard plastic and other garbage left over after the last present has been opened and shelled from it's packaging, and the extra bag of garbage that goes to the curb, resulting in a 25% increase in the waste stream of the United States in the Christmas season, and that light feeling your wallet gets after paying all the bills in January. It's obviously a season with a high toll on both your bank and the planet.
But it doesn't have to be. With some simple actions, you can both save money, and reduce your impact on the Earth this holiday season.
Gifts from the Heart, Not from Walmart
Most everything in larger stores are factory made in places most likely not even in the country and have been shipped long distances, giving them a rather heavy environmental impact from fossil fuel usage, pollution, and the increase of packaging used to get them to you safely, adding to the personal costs needed to drive the distance to the big store to get the item. But these costs can easily be countered.
When you were younger, there was nothing wrong with giving your parents a grubby craft item, covered in glue and scribbled on with an oversized marker, that you had made yourself in school. For many, those kindergarten crafts are still hidden somewhere on the Christmas tree, giving your parents fond memories of when you were small. Though badly pasted and painted macaroni is no longer as acceptable, the same basic principle is. A homemade gift shows your care and affection for someone far better then grabbing a prepackaged gift package off the $1.99 shelf at your local super store, whether it be homemade fudge, a hand sewn pot-holder, a scrap book of photos, or other homemade craft.
Another misconception with holiday shopping is the belief that in order to get a *really good* gift, you need to drive miles away to an oversized mall, looking for a snazzy gadget or pretty looking dust catcher, when a local, practical gift would not only be better enjoyed, but be cheaper and easier to get, saving you both time and money. Local craft stores are perfect for getting gifts for people on your list that you have little idea what to get, as are heath food stores, where you can pick out various personal care products that are made to be environmentally friendly. Buying locally also means you have to drive less, saving on gas usage, which both saves you money and helps reduce fossil fuel usage and pollution.
Packaging is a large waste generator, so make sure to choose items that are minimally packaged in recyclable materials. Other practical gifts are reusable items, such as a refillable coffee mug or canvas shopping bag can help reduce the use and waste of plastics and helping the person you're buying for reduce their environmental impact all year round
For friends and relatives who life far away, a gift card is an easy choice that will save you much money in the post office. Small enough to fit in a normal envelope, it requires no more packaging then the card that would accompany any gift, saving on waste as well as shipping impacts.
Creative Wrapping
One of the biggest garbage pail fillers at Christmas time is wrapping paper. Chemically treated and often single use, it's often crumpled up and tossed out without a thought, as it's what's inside that counts, not how snazzy it looks on the outside. With that in mind, here are a few ideas for alternative wrappings you can use that are all reused paper:
Brown Bag
A reused brown grocery bag, turned inside out and coloured with crayons
Reused printer paper
The backside of a used printout that has been coloured with colour pencils with a childrens theme.
Magazine page
A page from a colour magazine. Since the picture chosen has a sports theme, it's perfect for wrapping a present for a sports enthusist.
Comics
A sheet of the Sunday colour comics.
Colour Newsprint
Last years wrappings
Wrapping paper saved from a previous gift and reused. With presents that you receive, rather then ripping open the wrapping, crumpling it up and tossing it away, carefully open it and fold the paper flat. You can reuse it for the next gift you'll be giving, or, if it's no longer usable, recycle it instead of putting it into a landfill.
Gift Bags
Reuseable over and over
Other ways of creativly recycling for the Holidays include making gift tags from old cards that were received the year before. If the back of the front image hasn't been written on, simply cut off the back half and write your message on the back of the front image.
[Sources: "Think outside of the box" Daniel Imhoff, Body and Soul Magazine, December 2005]
Decorations: The high cost of your festive front lawn
Come the holiday season, there's always a plethora of decoration options available, most of them large, plastic, or energy using. Large light and electric powered displays not only cause a heavier electric bill, they also cause light and, in the case of inflatable decorations, noise pollution as well. Most of these displays are only actively looked at one or two nights out of the year, and almost never by the people who put them up, and because almost all of these electric displays are mass produced, it's either a trend competition to get the latest, and often most expensive new decoration or have your display look just like that of the house down the block.
Instead of trying to dazzle the passersby or compete with the neighbors, a more economical and earth friendly way of decorating for the holiday season is to go with simple, natural, reusable and nonelectric decorations.
Because plastic are made from petroleum, which is a fossil fuel that is dwindling in supply, wooden items should be preferred over plastic ones. Natural pine wreaths as easy to find and are biodegradable and often look just as nice, if not nicer then their artificial reproductions. The natural scent of the pine will also add to the decoration, as it is a smell most people associate with the holiday season. Wood lawn decorations can be used instead of plastic ones, and often have a similar storage life. When the paint on a wooden decoration becomes old and flaky, it becomes 'Rustic' rather then simply looking old like plastic decorations do when faded.
When buying christmas lights, choose LED lights. LED light strings use 80 percent less electricity than comparable incandescent light strings, and the lights will last longer. They are also safer, as the LED lights do not produce the heat that of the incandescent bulbs.
Make sure almost all the decorations you buy are either going to be reused for multiple years, or are recyclable or compostable. Single use, disposable decorations not only tax your wallet, they tax the planet's resources and the landfills as well.
Things to avoid:
Inflatable displays: These are normally large pieces that stay inflated by blown air and become unable to stay upright in wind, or if the fabric rips. They require electricity to stay inflated and often have a motor that produces unpleasant noises that can be heard when viewing the display closely.
Animated lawn decorations: Anything that has a moving part is more likely to break then something stationary. The movement also requires electricity, and since most people viewing the display will be going by in a car, very few will even notice the movement.
Excessive lighting: Lights often use the most electricity of any holiday display, and often will be using that electric when no one is around to view it, or, if on an automatic timer, can be on in the daytime when the light won't even be noticed. Also, very bight displays, especially with those that include flashing lights, can be distractions to drivers going past, potentially causing an accident.
[Source: Energy Federation Incorporated http://www.efi.org/
----
Organic when it means more: Chocolate
Chocolate is one of the most common candies, found in almost every store that sells food, and even some that don't. It's the preferred sweet of many, yet few know where it comes from or how it's grown.
Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, which traditionally is grown in the shade of a thinned area of the rainforest, a method that preserves the diversity of the rainforest and only minimally alters it. However, increased demand for it has started the practice of full-sun cocoa farming, a method where the trees of the rainforest are cut down and cleared in order to expose the cocoa plant to more light. While this method does produce a higher yield of crops, it also makes the plant more prone to disease, insects and sun-related damage, which means heavy amounts of pesticides and fertilizers must be applied to the fields in order to keep the higher yields. On top of these rather large environmental issues, cocoa production also has human rights issues, ranging from issues of low wages, exposure to dangerous chemical pesticides, to slave labour. Because of all these heavy problems, chocolate is a very important food to be aware of.
Organic certified chocolate means that the cocoa has been grown with out pesticides or chemicals, reducing the heath hazard to both yourself and to the farm workers. While it's more expensive, it also tends to be higher quality and better tasting, meaning you need less of it to fulfill your cravings. Other labels to look for when buying include "Shade Grown" "Fair Trade Certified" and "Rainforest Alliance Certified"
[Sources: http://www.thegreenguide.com/reports/product.mhtml?id=6
"Chocolates Dark Side" Kate Slomkowski, E Magazine, Volume XVI, number 6, Novemeber/December 2005]
And because it's related: http://www.uglychristmaslights.com/2005_collection/the_strip.html