{"id":9648,"date":"2012-12-11T02:56:37","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T10:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145696.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=9648"},"modified":"2012-12-11T02:56:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T10:56:37","slug":"5-ways-to-have-a-less-expensive-and-earth-friendly-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/articles\/5-ways-to-have-a-less-expensive-and-earth-friendly-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways to Have a Less Expensive and Earth Friendly Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It’s that time of year. No matter what holiday you celebrate, it is all about home, hearth, family, sharing, reflection, renewal, giving and charity . . . and being bombarded by insane marketing hype! For me bringing light into these long, cold and dark days means minimizing the commercial aspect and being more thoughtful about what I really want to share, give and how to let my close ones know how much I appreciate them. I’d say momma earth deserves a little appreciation as well, but we seem to be hardest on her during the few weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years . . .<\/p>\n

According to the EPA in the time between turkey and Auld Lang Syne, we here in the U.S. produce a whopping 25% more domestic waste than the rest of the year, which translates to over 1 million TONS of extra crap going into landfills every week!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I was on Ebru Today talking about a few ways to lessen the negative impact of our holidays on the environment. Watch the segment than see below for links to find out more details on what we discussed.<\/p>\n

[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m7-399ApHAk]<\/p>\n

Here are 5 things to \u00a0consider when gift-giving during the holidays – or any days!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to the\u00a0Center for a New American Dream,
\n<\/em>70%\u00a0of Americans would welcome less emphasis on gift giving and spending\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Make it and wrap it yourself –<\/strong><\/em>\u00a01\/4 – 1\/3 of all domestic waste is packaging. The estimated waste\u00a0from gift-wrap and shopping bags in the U.S. is about\u00a04 million tons\u00a0<\/strong>(fun, easy DIY gift ideas below)<\/li>\n
  2. Remember to use your own bags<\/em>\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong>Remember to bring your reusable bags for holiday gift shopping, and tell helpful cashiers that you don’t need one for very small or oversized items<\/li>\n
  3. Send an eCard<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0– The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high, and while we’re still into math, if we each sent one less card, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper – that’s a lot of trees folks! My favorite place to send free ecards from is\u00a0Care2.com<\/a>\u00a0– send free cards and do good while you’re at it!<\/li>\n
  4. Wrap it with something useful, recycled, or repurposed<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0–\u00a0Half<\/strong>\u00a0of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products. I like using new dishtowels or cloth napkins, but here are some other fun ideas we came up with –\u00a013 Ways to Wrap Cheap, Have Fun & Save Money
    \n<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/li>\n
  5. When buying a gift, consider it’s lifecycle and footprint<\/em>\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong>Ask yourself a few questions like: What is the item made of – is it made from recycled materials? Where does it come from – has it traveled very far? It is recyclable or will it sit in a landfill for an extended period of time after its current use? It is durable? Can it be used more than once?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    10 Easy DIY Gift Ideas for the Non-Crafty Green Diva<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(which includes the link to instructions for my teacup candle shown in the Ebru Today segment)<\/p>\n

    Green Diva Mizar’s DIY decorated\u00a0upcycled\u00a0\u00a0glass tea light holders<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(at the bottom of the 12.6.12 GD radio show post)<\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For me bringing light into these long, cold and dark days means minimizing the commercial aspect and being more thoughtful about what I really want to share, give and how to let my close ones know how much I appreciate them. More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":9649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[45,1912,5505],"tags":[6844,6845,6846,6847,6132],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/glass_bead_candleholder2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}