Why We Should Rethink Holiday Decorations
Deck the halls with boughs of . . . garbage.
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la.
It’s that time of year again.
Americans were expected to spend an average of $200 each on decorations this year, and $2.2 billion on over 400 million Christmas trees.
That’s one side of the story. What happens to it all afterward is a less festive tale.
Americans throw out an estimated 25% more waste from Thanksgiving to New Years’ than at any other time of year, adding up to 25 million pounds of extra trash. To be sure, it’s a lot more than just decorations. That’s also wrapping paper, packaging, food, themed party plates, and so much more. In the UK, an estimated 300,000 tons just of packaging is thrown away during the holidays, and the equivalent of 2 million turkeys.
That’s a lot of mostly non-recyclable plastic, mixed materials, and (possibly) edible food. Likely, even more will head straight to the dump once the New Years’ champagne hangover has worn off. Like that white elephant gift from the office party (don’t worry, I won’t tell).
Oh, and let’s not forget those hard plastic clamshell packages that you have to go all serial-killer to open. Everyone’s favorite impenetrable casings are not only quite possibly hazardous to your health, but notoriously hard to recycle.
In fact, recycling isn’t all it’s made out to be. Much of the material collected as “recycling” actually is simply shipped overseas for another country to handle. And most domestic facilities don’t want to deal with it. So quite often, “mixed plastics” end up in the landfill anyway. That doesn’t have to be true, however. The University of Southern Illinois estimated that it costs significantly less to recycle trash ($30 per ton) than to landfill it ($50 per ton).
Hidden Particles
Much of our waste contains microplastics, and they hide in places you wouldn’t expect, especially around the holidays. Tinsel, sequins, glitter, fake greenery, fake snow… All those tiny particles get washed right out of the landfill and right into the water supply.
A recent study estimated that worldwide, people now consume about a credit card’s worth of microplastics each week. Some sneaks in through food or breathing polluted air, but much of it comes from our drinking water.
Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?
That doesn’t even cover what it does to wildlife.
Sea turtles and other marine life often eat plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish. Then there was the dead whale that washed up in the Philippines, its stomach full of 88 pounds of plastic.
Okay, enough with the heavy stuff.
I’m really not trying to kill the holiday spirit. My point is, there’s a better way.
Biodegradable glitter can now be made from eucalyptus and other plant-based materials — for example, this one made in California and packaged in plastic-free tins. Apparently there is even such a thing as raffia tinsel, shiny but biodegradable.
LED lights use far less power than traditional incandescent bulbs, and have become fairly inexpensive. You could have a DIY party making Christmas ornaments or wreaths from natural and recycled materials — eco-friendly and fun for the kids too!
As for gifts and cards, you might be surprised to find that nearly half of Britons surveyed in 2017 would rather receive digital greetings and other kinds of “unwrapped” gifts to reduce waste.
Now, I love the holiday season as much as anyone. A small specimen of blue spruce is sitting on a side table in my living room as I write, and many of the ornaments are swathed in copious amounts of glitter.
I’m not saying you have to be perfect. And please enjoy every moment of the holiday season with your loved ones.
But please also remember, throwing things out does not make them go away.
