Recycle Your Christmas Cards and Help a Good Cause

Yesterday, I wrote about a company that will accept your old and broken strands of Christmas lights for recycling. Today, I bring you St. Jude's Ranch for Children that has a program that accepts all types of greeting cards, including Christmas cards, for their recycling program.

Now through Feb. 28, 2009, they are accepting donations of cards that will be turned into new cards and sold to raise funds for the ranch that "rescues abused, abandoned and neglected children of all races and faiths from the vicious cycle of child abuse."

The children participate in the recycling program.

The children participate in making the new recycled cards by removing the front and attaching a new back made with recycled paper. The new card is a beautiful, “green” card made by the children and volunteers. The benefits are two-fold: customers receive "green" holiday cards for use and the children receive payment for their work and learn the benefits and importance of "going green".

Unlike yesterday, where I defended my willingness to donate my strands of lights to a for-profit company that would make money from them, there is no need to defend contributing to this program. 

Cards can be sent to:

St. Jude's Ranch for Children
Card Recycling Program
100 St. Jude's Street
Boulder City, NV 89005

For more information on St. Jude Ranch for Childen, please visit their website. There are many other ways that you can contribute to this refuge for children like the Campbells Labels program and the General Mills Box Top program.

Recycling Christmas Lights

Good Morning. I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. We've got a few days break until New Year's hits, so I'm back at work. The boys, however, are not back at school. I feel so blessed that I can work from home and accommodate their schedules. I like it when they are off. The morning get ready for school routine is my least favorite thing of any regular day.

If you drove past my house this holiday season, there would have been a lack of cheer going on outside. Our pre-lighted garland that we've had for years bit the dust. My husband and I talked about going out and buying new, but in the end, we decided we'd hold off for this year. We'd wait until the after Christmas sales and then buy some LED lights. We still had a wreath on the door and candles in the windows, and you could see the lighted tree through the windows so we didn't look like complete humbugs.

The biggest problem was the disposal of the old stuff. That was solved  when I found a recycling program for strands of incandescent lights on holidayleds.com. 

When we receive your lights for recycling we will remove them from the package and recycle the box. The lights will be processed and any material that cannot be recycled (i.e. loose bulbs)is discarded. Once we have collected a substantial number of sets we take them to a 3rd party recycling facility located in Jackson, MI. The recycling company puts the lights through a commercial shredder, which chops the lights up into little pieces. The pieces are then further processed and sorted into the various components that make up the lights (pvc, glass, copper.) The materials are separated and transported to a region center for further processing. In some cases, the pvc cannot be recycled.

They will also send you a 15% off coupon for the LED lights they sell on their site. I know that this company is making out on this deal. I'm sure they sell the lights that they are sent to the 3rd party recycling plant. And of course, the coupon is to encourage you to buy from them. But I'm okay with that.

I also like that they ask that your lights be sent without any packing materials (the lights are already broken), in a recyclable box, and in the smallest box possible. All of this makes the least environmental impact when shipping the items

If I want to do things like hang holiday lights outside my home, then I need to be responsible with their disposal. I could collect old strings of light myself from others until I had enough to sell for a profit. But I'm not going to do that. Holidayleds.com will do it so I'm willing to spend a little postage to send the old stuff to them and if they make a few cents on it, so what? Allowing them to make a few cents is much better than throwing them in a landfill.

So, I'll be extricating the old strings of light from the garland and sending it away to be recycled. The garland is still useful, so I'll keep that and put the new LED lights on it next year. 

Yep, it's more work than just tossing the whole thing in the trash and buying new pre-lit garland. Oh well. Sometimes doing the right thing takes a little effort.

Look What I Did for my Christmas Party

Okay, after yesterday's post on not screaming about how green your holiday celebration is, I am going to show you one thing I did for my Christmas party over the weekend. I'm not very crafty so I'm a little proud of this (not that it was difficult at all).

Instead of going out and buying poinsettias to help fill in a few of the bare spots around the house, I pillaged my neighbors holly tree. I only took from the branches that overhang in my yard which is totally allowed.  I put holly branches on the top of my china cabinet and put some in vases, too. Look at this:

Poinsettias, pretty as they are, are not grown locally. That means they have to be shipped far. In the past, I've bought them from the cheap produce place that imports all their stuff from Mexico and South America. To sell it that cheaply, I can only assume it's not grown in any manner resembling organic. Add those facts to the whole "we need to go lighter on Christmas spending mentality" around my house (and every other house in the U.S.), and I decided to nix the poinsettias this year. 

The holly option was certainly local, taken from a tree that requires no chemicals to sustain it, and free. I've got a bunch of vases in the basement, so I didn't even need to buy those.

Now, while it's my opinion that we shouldn't go screaming our greenness at our holiday celebrations, it's acceptable to do a little showing off in this forum. So, what have you done differently this year, or added or taken away this year, in the name of being green?

Subtle Green Holiday Party Ideas - Not Happening

You know, I was going to make a list of green party ideas that didn't scream "I'm a green party idea." As I was thinking about the list, it occurred to me that it isn't the food or the decorations or the lights that would be the ones screaming "I'm green." They are inanimate objects and very few people are going to wonder if your candles are parafin or soy, your turkey is free range, or your lights are LED. The only way your guests are going to know these things is if you scream about them.

So here's what I think. I think that your holiday celebration isn't about celebrating green. It's about celebrating the birth of Jesus or celebrating the miracle of eight nights of burning oil lamps or simply celebrating friends and family.

So go ahead. Make your holiday party as green as you want. Buy the free range turkey, serve the organic wine, play holiday music downloaded via mp3's instead of going out and buying physical cd's, buy all your linens from a thrift store, and re-wear last year's Christmas sweater. Just keep your mouth shut about it all.

Don't spend Christmas dinner talking about why your real tree is greener than your brother's artifical tree. Don't let everyone know that the paper plates your using for dessert are made from recycled materials and are completely compostable. Don't make this holiday about being greener than everyone else at your table. Be a gracious greenie this holiday season.

Oh, and the above picture is this year's tree that we decorated last night. And I'm not going to tell you if we bought it from a local source or if the light's are LED. I know and I don't need to scream about it.

Green Celebrations: My Christmas Party and an Inaugural Ball

What do my annual neighborhood Christmas party and an upcoming inaugural ball have in common? 

This Saturday night is our annual Christmas party. We invite our friends from the neighborhood and have a kid-less evening. Last year, I did the best I could to make the event green, but this year I'm adding a couple of additional earth-friendly elements. 

After lasts year's party I wrote a post When It's Okay to Use Paper Products. Check it out. It holds up well. 

My party is not the only green one on the horizon. I read that that one of the pre-inauguration balls has gone green.  The first eco-friendly inauguration celebration will be held on January 17th.

How will it be eco-friendly? Here is what is planned:

• catering will be 100% organic and include vegetarian and vegan options
  
• the bars will feature local and organic beverages
  
• food waste and flowers will be composted
  
• glass bottles will be recycled
  
• lighting will be LED
  
• efficient lighting and energy entertainment systems will be used
  
• energy usage will be offset by the purchase of wind power credits
  

It think this is great, and while I can't do all of this at my own party, I'm inspired by the example which is exactly what the event planners hope to do. Except they aren't looking to inspire me. One of the planners of the celebration says the

goal is to bring attention to this issue while the Presidential Inaugural Committee and many other groups are still early in their planning. We hope to set an example to other organizations and encourage them to green their events, as well

Good for them.

Now here's my question for you. What can you do this holiday to inspire those around you without being the obnoxious green person? Think about it. Tomorrow, I'll have a list of things that you change or add to your holiday celebration that won't scream "I'm green" but will be smart choices.

Free Christmas Music - MP3's

It's easy to see how buying your music via mp3 download is greener than buying a physical product. What's even better than music that's greener? FREE music that's greener. A while back I did a post with the places where I find legal free music downloads. Two of those places are iTunes and Amazon.

During the holiday season, both sites offer free Christmas music. iTunes usually offers two songs each week, with the new songs being offered each Tuesday. This week's offerings are from Faith Hill and Brian McKnight.

Amazon has a much bigger selection of free Christmas music than iTunes. They are doing a 25 days of Free music. Today's free selection - Greensleeves done by Vince Guaraldi. Much cooler than Faith Hill or Brian McKnight. The selections are free all month so if you've missed days 1-10 so far, it's not too late. A new selection is introduced each day. They also have a free holiday music sampler with artists like Bing Crosby and The Beach Boys. If you poke around a bit, you can find other free music, too.

So there is my early Christmas present to all of you - free music. Get downloading.

Last minute addition: I'm adding this to the list because I just found out about it. My favorite radio station in Philly, WXPN, is doing a 12 Days of Local Christmas Music. All the downloads are from Philly Local bands. Today is day 3, but you can download past days' songs, too. And, of course, it's FREE!

Better Holiday Candles: Soy and Beeswax

I need candles for the candle holder in fireplace candle stand. We don't light the candles in there that often, so it's been a couple of years since I bought them. The last time I bought them, I went to the dollar store for them. I was able to fill the stand with candles for less than $10.

I need new candles for it, and I priced them out over the weekend - to the tune of $48. Have candles really gone up that much? No, the conventional dollar store candles are still available at the dollar store. I'm not willing to buy the conventional candles anymore. I'm looking to buy soy candles. Here's why.

Conventional candles are made from paraffin. Paraffin candles are made from petroleum and emit harmful carcinogens when burned. Their creation is bad for the earth's environment and their use is bad for the environment inside your home.

In contrast, soy candles are made from soybeans and are non-toxic. No carcinogens are emitted when they burn. They usually cost more than paraffin candles, but they burn longer. They don't need to be replaced as often. 

Another option is beeswax candles. Beeswax is a completely renewable resource. Beeswax candles burn longer than paraffin candles and they are almost dripless making them a good candle to put on top of a tablecloth - no difficult wax drips to try to clean off. Like soy candles they bur clean, and like soy they are more expensive than paraffin.

Sometimes better, cleaner, more environmentally friendly costs more. This is one of those times. I don't know if the soy and beeswax candles burn long enough to cancel out their higher cost. I do know that I'm not willing to pay $48 for the candles in my fireplace. I'm either going to find them cheaper or do without for now.

But, considering it's the holidays and a lot of candles are going to get burned in the next three weeks or so, I thought I'd let you all know what the better choices are.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Packing and Shipping Materials

Just about now during the holidays, if you shop online, you're being inundated with boxes full of gifts. But those boxes probably contain more packing materials than gifts. It's amazing the over packaging that some companies do.

What do you do with all of those packing and shipping materials that end up piled high in the dining room? There is on thing you shouldn't do with them. Throw them away. There are lots of ways to avoid them becoming landfill.

Reduce

You have no control over how a package that is shipped to you is packed. But you do have control over the packages you ship. Try to find appropriate sized boxes so you don't have to put more filler than needed in. You'll save money, and you'll save some greenhouse gasses? How?

It may seem miniscule, but every little bit of extra weight in a package means that the vehicles used to haul it needs to use more fuel. If you make your package as light as possible, and others take the same measures, fuel will be saved.

Another way to reduce when it comes to shipping is to ship directly to the recipient. Do you order gifts online for friends and relatives you live far away, have them shipped to your home, wrap them, and then re-ship them to the recipients? You're doubling the carbon footprint of that packages travels. 

If the company you order from offers gift wrapping, let them wrap it and send it directly. Or, if you're buying for kids who live far away, let their parents know you are sending some gifts and ask if they wouldn't mind wrapping them for you once you arrive. My in-laws do this frequently. 

Reuse

Packing and shipping materials can be reused over and over. I have a spot in my basement where I have broken down boxes, bubble wrap, air pillows, etc from items that have been shipped to me. When I need to ship something I never need to buy anything new (except packing tape once in a while).

What if you don't have the room to store these materials or you end up with more than you will ever use? Giving it away is easy.

Many packing/shipping stores will take things like packing peanuts, air pillows, and other fillers. They won't pay you for them, but it's worth it to donate them to keep them out of landfills.

If you have any friends who are ebay sellers, they will probably happily take these materials off your hands.

Another way to give these things away is to list them on Craigslist or to Freecycle them. If you have a collection of packing/shipping materials there is someone out there who wants them, and that someone is checking these places to see who has them. 

Last year, as the boxes came in with online purchases, I threw them all in the downstairs shower (we never use it - it's more like a closet). After the holidays, I put it all together and listed it on Freecycle. Within a couple of hours, someone had come to my house and collected it all. It felt really good to know that all of this stuff was going to get reused at least one more time.

Recycle

If any of these items truly are unusable, say a box has just gotten to beaten up to reuse, make sure it hits the recycling bin and not the trash can.

It's tempting during the busy holidays to just get these shipping/packing materials out of our way by sending them out for the trash men to pick up. It takes extra effort to make sure they end up being used and reused and disposed of responsibly. So decide now to be make a commitment to being responsible with them so you won't be tempted to put those evil packing peanuts in the trash can.

10 Easy Ways to Be More Sustainable with Holiday Gift Wrapping

This post doesn't just pertain to holiday gift wrapping, but since it's December, I put holiday in the title. Cause I try to cater to the search engines, at least in my titles. Anyway, it seems everyone is buying less this season, but people are still buying. This means that people will still need to wrap. 

Have you ever considered what a waste wrapping paper is? It's paper that is created to be thrown out. Really. Think about kids' birthday parties or a baby shower or Christmas morning. There is always a plastic trash bag standing by just to collect the wrapping paper because everyone knows it is going to get thrown out. 

Perhaps this year, we can all try to be more responsible with our gift wrap - both in the choosing of the wrap and the disposing of it. Let's go green with our gift wrapping. Here are ten easy ways.

1. Take stock of what you already have. You may not need to buy anything if you've got a stack of half roles of wrapping paper from years' past. Use it up.
   
2. Skip the bows. Those pre-made bows with the stickies on them never stay on the package, get crushed if you need to stack packages up, and end up in the trash immediately (unless you're like my family who spent all Christmas morning being told to "save the bows, save the bows" only to find them completely crushed and reusable the next holiday season at the bottom of a box - then they got thrown away).
   
3. Keep your scraps. When you're wrapping a big gift, there are usually scraps that are cut off. They can usually be used to wrap gifts in a stocking.
   
4. Skip wrapping the really big stuff. Throw a blanket over a new TV just to retain a little of the mystery or hide a kids' new bike in a remote area of the house and give him directions to go hunt for it. But don't use a mound of wrapping paper on a large item.
   
5. Here's an oldy but goody suggestion - use last year's Christmas cards as gift tags on this years packages.
6. Get untraditional with your choice of wrapping paper. The colorful Sunday comics (my mom is famous for using Sunday comics for wrapping) make great wrapping paper. Old maps, kids' artwork, paper bags, leftover wall paper, or pages ripped from magazines (for really small items) all can be used to wrap gifts. Check out this cool way to wrap wine bottles with newspaper.
7. If you're going to buy new wrapping paper, buy wrap made from recycled materials.
8. Get creative with boxes. Cereal boxes or cracker boxes are usually very clean and can be used to place items in before being wrapped. If you order gifts online, reuse the boxes that your items are delivered in.
9. I never buy gift bags, but I have a ton of them. Do you have gift bags stashed away somewhere. Dig them out, dust them off. See which ones can be used for the holidays.
10. When you unwrap your gifts, make sure to be responsible with the wrappings. If it's reusable, save it for another use. Flatten clothing boxes and gift bags and put them away for another use. Make sure all wrapping paper that is not going to be used again gets put in a recycle bin and not a trash bin.

I've seen a lot of suggestions this year about greener wrapping, and many people are saying "the greenest way to wrap is not to wrap at all." I don't know - maybe. But, unwrapping gifts is part of the magic of the holidays. Can you imagine being a kids, running down the stairs on Christmas morning, and finding your gifts under the tree unwrapped? I'll be wrapping this year, but I'll be doing it much more responsibly than I have in the past. How about you?