Eco-Friendly Christmas

We always get carried away during the Christmas celebrations, and we end up forgetting being mindful of our environment. This is witnessed in the use of non biodegradable invitation cards, plastic Christmas trees and too much food, which is either cooked or bought and it all ends up as waste. This waste ends up as a contributor to air pollution, soil pollution or even water pollution. All of these have negative effects which we should try to avoid. Maybe it is the right time that we stopped and corrected our actions.

Let us look at a couple of issues that we should watch in an endeavor to achieve an eco friendly Christmas:

Christmas Cards - Whenever you invite friends for a Christmas dinner or party at your house you will mostly use cards. Unfortunately, most of the cards gets lost or forgotten after the holiday season. However, when sending the cards, we can put this into consideration and find a way to avoid such waste from occurring. One way of achieving this is to send the invitation through e-mail, by phone or relay the invitation in person.

However, if cards are your preferred method then you should use materials which are biodegradable. In addition, you should get the cards that have a message indicating their recyclability.

The second aspect of gifts that hinder an eco friendly Christmas is the way we wrap our gifts. Most of the times we will use the non biodegradable wrappers and these will lead to soil pollution. Use materials which easily decompose or even be recycled. Recycling could be the reuse of the materials in another way or even in the manufacture of other products.

The paradigm is that a Christmas is never complete without a Christmas tree. However, we usually make the mistake of buying plastic trees and these will not decompose any time soon after the holiday. It is therefore, necessary to use a natural tree that you will actually plant and take care of to ensure that it grows. This tree will clean the air by using up carbon dioxide and introducing oxygen into the environment. Moreover, the tree will not require disposition since it will be used over the years. As you light up the tree, you can actually use solar-powered lights, and this is much more eco friendlier than the ones powered by hydroelectric power.

Decorations can be achieved using natural products like fruits and nuts that have various colors. In addition, you can use cones of pine and this way you will not have any waste with you because the fruits and nuts are edible products.