Cutting Down on Holiday Trash

Tracy Mirsky is Recycling Coordinator for the Town of Harwinton.

The Christmas season is upon us. Along with the celebration of the birth of Christ come gaily wrapped gifts, greeting cards and catalogs. Did you know that Americans send 2.65 billion greeting cards a year? Those cards would fill a ten-story building the length and width of a football field! And those mail order catalogs? They're delivered with wanton abandon from every corner of the globe. Americans produce one billion extra tons of trash each year around the holidays!

Cutting down on holiday trash is a responsibility of each family. Suggestions include giving gifts, such as tickets to events and gift certificates, that require little wrapping. Save as many things as possible to re-use, such as boxes, ribbons and bows, and wrapping paper. Make wrapping paper by stamping designs on brown paper bags, or use comics or old colorful calendars. Fabric wrappings can be saved and recycled again and again.

Remove your name from junk mail and catalog lists by writing to: Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735. Request that your name and address be removed from all mailing lists. Be sure to include an address label from a piece of junk mail.

Mail the fronts of your Christmas cards (and any greeting cards) to St. Jude's Ranch for Children, 100 St. Jude's St., Boulder City, NV 89005-1618.

Recycle, at curbside, everything that is accepted by your hauler. Those recyclables will be reprocessed and will come back into your home, again and again. Another plus of curbside recycling is that it takes the weight out of the garbage, keeping the costs to each municipality lower.

Have a happy "green" Christmas!