Since we just made it through the holiday season, it got me thinking about how much waste is created with the Christmas holiday alone. A lot of wrapping paper is not able to be recycled and when you think about how much of it is used, that is a lot a paper in the landfill. I looked at my fake tree and wondered how much energy was used to manufacture it. True you can use them year after year, but eventually they do start to look worse for the wear and then what do you do with them? Why is it at Christmas time, we forget all about living sustainably?
Being guilty of this crime, my family and I decided to take some action. We are donating our artifical tree to a thrift shop so someone can get several more years of use out of it, and from now on, we will be purchasing a living Christmas tree! While it will cost more to do this each year, we feel it will be money well invested in the environment.
It will also create some family memories and traditions because we can go together as a family to choose the tree and then we will plant each year's tree in our yard. This will be a wonderful way to add trees to our landscaping and will give us a year round memory of each holiday season. If we don't have room to plant the tree, we will donate it to the Heavenly Horse Haven in Anza. They have 28 acres and are in need of trees to create shady areas for the animals. Either way, it is a win win situation. No trees will be cut down and we won't be using a throw away tree for our holiday celebrations.
Next week I will talk about how green your gift wrapping and gift giving! How do you green your holidays? Let me know and I will share your ideas with everyone else.
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