That’s a Wrap

     I tend to drive some people crazy with all of my green efforts.  Sometimes I even annoy myself; especially when I’m driving around with plastic bottles and aluminum cans in my car because there is no place to recycle them.  Just because the kids have a break from school doesn’t mean I take a break from being green.  In fact, this holiday season I find myself being even greener than usual.

     There are lots of ways to be green during the holidays.  Using LED Christmas lights saves money and energy.   Online shopping is a great way to cut down on pollution caused by vehicle traffic. Careful attention to gift purchasing, wrapping and unwrapping is another way to be green.

     When it’s time to wrap presents I head for my wrapping box.  Inside of this box is a treasure of already been used gift packaging stuff.  There are various sizes of wrapping paper that has been cut up and salvaged, tissue paper that has been smoothed out, ribbons, gift bags and gift boxes that have all been used before.  Some of the boxes are very well used and will most likely head to the recycling center after Christmas.  Other boxes I store so I have them when I need them, but if you don’t want to hang onto them then you can almost always get rid of them by listing them on the internet. 

     This year I encourage you to think green when unwrapping your gifts.  Salvage what you can for reuse and recycle what can’t be used again.  It will save you time shopping for more wrapping paper in the future, money on future purchases and it will save trees and other resources used to make gift packaging material.