Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve, or any combination thereof, are times of wonderful celebration, but also times of rampant waste. In fact, holiday waste statistics are shocking.
Statistics for a normal American environmental footprint are grim enough. The average U.S. resident produces nearly 5 pounds of trash per day (compared with the global average of 1.6 pounds per day). The majority consists of paper (23%), food (22%), and plastics (12%), while the remainder (43%) is distributed among textiles, wood, metals, glass, and more.
The holidays amplify the problem. Household waste can increase by more than 25% from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, which amounts to a million extra tons of trash each week. Much of this waste springs from wrapping paper, bows, ribbons, shopping bags, packaging, and food. Surely we can do better.
Zero-Waste Tactics
Moving toward a year-round zerowaste lifestyle requires at least the following two tactics:
1 Giving up disposable products and embracing reusable or washable alternatives. This step alone is likely to cut your
