Recycle that holiday wrapping paper!

Within the next day or so, you will be wrapping your gifts for the Holidays and unless you have a trick up your sleeve, you will be using paper wrapping paper. There are alternate “green” ways to wrap gifts without filling up our landfills with holiday wrapping paper and cute ways to decorate gifts and save money.

You can wrap with scarves, and simply tie up. Wrap a bottle of wine in a newspaper, forget the bows this year! Use anything from paper bags to leftover wallpaper, and cut out images from magazines, comics, children’s drawings or old greeting cards to give your package an artistic flair. Decorate the gift with sprigs of berries, branches, shells and pinecones. Tie on raffia or yarn to add to the décor! Put your gift(s) in a recycle bag that you buy from the grocery store, it might encourage them to use it.

OK, so the gifts have been opened and you see a room full of wrapping paper, what now?

• After the holidays, use the wrapping paper to wrap your child’s books
• Use wrapping paper to cover a cork board and hang on the wall.
• Use the paper to cover the inside of the drawers or cabinets.
• Keep your paper and re-use if not too wrinkled for gifts next year.
• Give to local schools for crafts
• Keep it in the garage or under the sink. Clean windows with crumbled up wrapping paper, it is great!
• Use the paper to fill hats or boots
• Use as placements when our kids eat or craft

So, enjoy your holidays with your family and friends, and when cleaning up, remember to recycle that old wrapping paper, it won’t take any time away from your festivities, and you will feel better helping out our environment!

A "Green" Fireworks show!

New Year's Eve is fast approaching and we all love to attend the parties, parades and watch the spectacular fireworks shows, seems to innocent right? Not so, New Year’s Eve fireworks can cause humans great health risks, not to mention animals, and our Mother Earth.

In July of 2009 scientists found that fireworks, although fun and usually free to watch, pose a great risk to human health. The smoke that is put out from fireworks can trigger asthma attacks, and sends toxic metals into the soil and water. Not only can the fireworks harm our lungs but the poisonous metal that makes the color white, is called Antimony and can harm the lungs, heart and stomach. Barium causes the green color in fireworks and can be toxic to the heart. Not only are fireworks bad for humans but of course, not good for our earth either. As you can imagine, all those metals flying through the air into our water and into our soil, takes its toll on our environment as well.

Scientists and researchers are working on a new generation of pyrotechnics. While still explosive and dramatic and fun, these fireworks produce less smoke and use fewer toxic metals that end up in soil and groundwater. We all know that not all people are on the eco-friendly fireworks bandwagon, but it would be great to encourage your neighborhood or area to go with the new Eco-friendly fireworks. They are a bit more pricey than the normal fireworks and it might be a little premature to expect your metroplex to use them yet, but now you know and you can help spread the word. You can contact the EPA to find out where to purchase.

Disneyland is on board as they do fireworks nightly. They are investigating cleaner burning fireworks and in 2004, Disney began using compressed air to launch fireworks at Disneyland in Anaheim and it reduces at least the issues of smoky particulates in the air and perchlorates in the water.

Although the eco-friendly fireworks will be hard to find at the present time, if you buy fireworks, ask for the low smoke fireworks, and make sure you follow firework safety tips.

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas…..

Our environment doesn’t take time off for the holidays, and neither should we!
Being “green” is a 365 day a year responsibility. There are many ways you can continue your environmentally friendly trends during this holiday season.

Let’s start with your tree. An artificial tree will last for many years, but when you are ready to replace it – what happens? It will end up in a land fill and last forever! Your best bet with a Christmas tree is to purchase a pine tree with the roots still intact. Then after the holidays, you can plant the tree outside and watch it grow! When purchasing the lights for your tree, remember to buy the LED ones. They cut down on the amount of electricity used.

Decorating the tree is fun and easy. You can use old ribbon laying around the house as garland, or pop some popcorn and gather the family for a popcorn stringing party! Have a contest for your kids and let them create ornaments using items you already have in the house (or that they find outside).

My Mom was green before being green was cool! I remember Christmas mornings at my house – we used a seam ripper to open our Christmas presents. My Mom was able to re-use wrapping paper for YEARS that way. If you don’t want to take it to that extreme, you can use the funny papers to wrap presents, or any section of the paper. Finish it off with a red bow – and wha-lah – a great wrapping job friendly to the environment! If you are having to ship presents this year – please avoid those styrofoam peanuts! Instead use old newspaper as package filler or do as a friend of mine does, save your children's Ziploc baggies and blow them up to use as cushions inside the boxes.

So many easy ways to stay “green”. E-mail cards rather than snail mail, online shopping rather than driving from mall to mall – just a little common sense goes a long way in helping Mother Earth!

If you don't know much about recycling, ask or do what we do and search the web! Don't forget to buy eco-friendly gifts as well this Holiday season!

Happy Holidays!