Reduce Waste this Holiday Season

Facts on Holiday Waste (from www.recycleworks.org)

From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25%. Added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons - it all adds up to an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. (EPA and Use Less Stuff) In the U.S., annual trash from gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons. (Use Less Stuff, 1998)
  • Cards
    • 1.9 billion Christmas cards are sent to friends and loved ones every year, making Christmas the largest card-sending occasion in the United States. (Hallmark research)
    • The amount of cards sold during the holiday season would fill a football field 10 stories high, and requires the harvesting of nearly 300,000 trees. (Use Less Stuff)
  • Ribbons
    • 38,000 miles of ribbon is thrown out each year. The Earth's circumference is 25,000 miles - enough to tie a bow around the Earth.
  • Food
    • At least 28 billion pounds of edible food are wasted each year - or over 100 pounds per person. Putting one less cookie on Santa's plate will reduce his snacking by about 2 million pounds. (Use Less Stuff, 1998)
    • If every American throws away just one uneaten tablespoon of mashed potatoes it adds 16 million pounds of waste to our landfills. (Cygnus Group)
  • Paper
    • Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products. (The Recycler's Handbook, 1990)
  • Christmas Trees
    • Each year, 50 million Christmas trees are purchased in the U.S. (Cygnus Group). Of those, about 30 million go to the landfill. (Environmental News Network)
  • Gifts
    • The average American spends $800 on gifts over the holiday season.
    • According to a national survey, 70% of Americans would welcome less emphasis on gift giving and spending. (Center for a New American Dream)
    • About 40% of all battery sales occur during the holiday season. (EPA)
  • Transportation
    • If each family reduced holiday gasoline consumption by one gallon (about twenty miles), we'd reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one million tons. (Use Less Stuff, 1998)
A eco holiday reminder from our frinds at Earth Alley which is an eco-friendly, fair trade gift store in the Hampden business district of Baltimore. They specialize in unique, hand made items that use recycled materials in their production. they are proud to work with many local artisans and are always on the look out for more. Please stop by, say hello, and find that last minute gift made from recycled material. They are located at 3602 Elm Ave, at the corner of Elm and 36th or at www.earthalley.com.

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by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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