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December 23, 2009
Here are a few tips to make your holidays green.
Reduce consumption: Granted, this is a hard concept at this time of year, but you can make a difference by looking at the item’s packaging before you buy anything. Avoid single-serve packages and juice boxes when possible; they produce an incredible amount of waste.
A lot of waste comes from packaging materials such as plastic wraps, juice boxes, straws, cellophane, Styrofoam and cardboard.
When possible, try to buy in bulk, such as large boxes (laundry soap, cereal, etc). Doing this produces far less packaging waste than equivalent quantities of smaller size packages.
Reuse items: Some families I’ve talked with have made creative gifts out of reusing things, either re-gifting an item in your home that you don’t use and think someone else can use, or making something clever out of recycled products.
I’ve made bracelets out of soda pop can tops linked together that were a big hit, or bowls made from the old 33 record vinyl — what a hit with the person’s favorite 1970’s group.
You can find many ideas for reusing these resources just by Googling “recycled crafts.” And, if you get into the closet clean-out mode, don’t forget that most of this stuff we want to throw away has the potential of being a treasure for other.
Goodwill, Atlanta Step Up Society or FurKids has a new drop off store on Holcomb Bridge Road taking all kinds of household goods and clothing.
Recycle everything: Many folks don’t realize that wrapping paper is recyclable. You can check with your waste hauler to see if it’s OK to put that in your recycling bin.
Or, you can take the wrapping paper, cardboard boxes and old electronic items after you got your new television for the holidays and many other products to the Roswell Recycling Center, 11570 Maxwell Road. They are available by calling 770-442-8822. Another option is the Sandy Springs Recycling Center on Morgan Falls Road. More info is available by calling 770-551-7766.
• Styrofoam is a difficult item to recycle but Publix provides containers outside their stores for small quantities. Most of the shipping stores like UPS will reuse your clean Styrofoam “peanuts.”
• Plastic bags should not go in your curb side bins, but taken to grocery stores or the Roswell or Sandy Springs recycling centers.
And, as always, a better choice than plastic would be to bring your reusable bags with you when you shop — they are stronger, easier to handle and simple to carry into your house.
• Your Christmas tree can be recycled at the area Home Depots. You can drop them off anytime after Dec. 25 up until the “Bring One for the Chipper” Day on Jan. 9. from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Here are the area
locations:
The Home Depot
1580 Holcomb Bridge Road, Roswell
The Home Depot
870 Woodstock Road, Roswell
The Home Depot
5300 Windward Parkway, Alpharetta
The Home Depot
5950 State Bridge Road, Johns Creek
The Home Depot
6400 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, Sandy Springs
Would you like a free load of Christmas tree mulch? It is great for covering eroded areas, nature trails and walkways (but is not recommended for flower and shrub beds). Davey Tree Company is the sponsor of the Christmas Tree recycling event and always needs places to take the mulch. If you can use some, call 770-451-7911 and they will send you a form for mulch.
Cindy Eade is president of Evergreen Environmental Education and Consulting, LLC.
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