Some Interesting Facts on Holiday Waste
- 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)
Cards
- The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year n the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one card less, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper. (Use Less Stuff)
- Consider sending an electronic card. Here is what American Greetings online has to offer:
Ribbons
- if every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet.
Food
- At least 28 billion pounds of edible food are wasted each year – or over 100 pounds per person. (Use Less Stuff)
Paper
- Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products. (The Recycler’s Handbook)
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)
