Don’t Trash the Holidays!

Guest Post from Pinellas Partners in Recycling

Don’t trash the holidays! Gift wrap, packaging and party goods add up to truckloads of extra garbage. Let the holidays fill your heart and not your trash can with these tips to cut holiday waste.

Toss the tinsel, but not the tree. Make the season green by recycling your Christmas tree. Prepare your tree by removing all decorations including lights, ornaments and tinsel. Find out where to recycle your Christmas tree.

A Halloween Color Change

Ramona Madhosingh-Hector, Urban Sustainability Agent

The traditional Halloween color is orange but it doesn’t mean that you can’t incorporate green ideas for this year’s celebration. From costumes to lights to decorations, “greening” this pumpkin color fest is easy.

Costumes are a huge part of Halloween but instead of the usual store splurge, have a grand time making your own and saving some of your green. Use old or recycled clothing, fabrics and other materials when putting together your costumes. Reuse bits and pieces from last year’s costume or even better, do a costume swap with friends or family.

Halloween lighting is trouble-free when you choose LEDs. Light Emitting Diode (LED) is a small electric component that converts electricity into light and because of this they are extremely flexible. LED lights are available in different colors, sizes, shapes and light intensity. The biggest benefit of LED lights is the energy and dollar savings to be gained. LEDs use at least 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs and last 35 to 50 times longer.

Halloween decorations can easily be made from household items. Do you remember your art classes from elementary school? Toilet paper rolls, plastic bottles, fabric swaps and pipe cleaners can often turn into magical decorations. Don’t forget to use some natural elements to “green” your Halloween décor – pine cones, pumpkin seeds or seasonal fruit.

To make the orange holiday even more fun serve some “green” and healthy party treats to your guests. Chocolate is great but so are carrots, granola bars, and raisins.

Together these tips will save you money while protecting the environment.

Resources:

LED Factsheet
Energy Star – LED
Healthy Snacks for Children – Factsheet

Green Travel Made Easy

James Stevenson, Pinellas County Extension Specialist, Urban Sustainability

Have you had enough yet? Ready to get out of Dodge? If you are “Leaving on a Jet Plane….” this summer, it is possible to “offset” the carbon cost of your journey with the help of some of the largest travel companies.

Ofsetting refers to projects that compensate for emissions by providing for “sinks” that will absorb the equivalent amount of carbon. Many of these projects involve funding re-forestation projects, both domestically and abroad, with the majority in developing countries.

Check out Expedia’s “traveler’s guide to going green” Travelocity has partnered-up with TerraPass who offer bundles that fund clean energy production, methane mitigation strategies for farmers and landfill gas capture. These offsets are only a few dollars and can be added to the price of your ticket with one quick click.

Orbitz has engaged Carbonfund.org and offers links and information at their microsite, eco.orbitz.com. From there, you can purchase offsets for both domestic and international flights (a flat-fee for each.) According to their website, Carbonfund.org makes it easy and affordable for everyone to offset their carbon footprint with high-quality, 3^rd party verified renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects.”

Travelocity offers access to GoZero carbon emission offsets through their “travel for good” program. This program not only helps travelers offset carbon emissions, but also offers access to socially-responsible travel options and options that support our domestic economy. Don’t forget, being green is not JUST about the environment!

We’d love to hear about your green travel adventures this summer. Either use the “comment” option below or send us an email to sustainability@pinellascounty.org and we’ll post a selection in the coming months. Enjoy your green trip!

Holidays Are for the Family

Vestina Crayton, Pinellas County Extension Specialist, Urban Sustainability

Holiday Family Decision Making

Having to make so many decisions this holiday season can be overwhelming. Since most decisions that you will make will impact your family, why not get them involved? From who will prepare the holiday dinner to who will clean up after dinner, everyone can help.

However, you must start with making some decisions. Schedule a family meeting and simply create your plan by answering the following four questions:

1. What do you want to accomplish?
2. How will you do it?
3. When will you do it?
4. Who will be involved?

You can use these simple questions to help make any family decision. Making decisions as a family can help reduce conflict and enhance the younger member’s ability to set goals and be a team player by contributing to the success of making sure the goals are accomplished.

Holidays Are For the Family

Vestina Crayton, Pinellas County Extension Specialist, Urban Sustainability


Minimizing Holiday Stress


Holidays are for family, friends, and fun. But the reality is, preparing for family, friends, and fun can be stressful. In addition to getting plenty of sleep, exercising, eating properly, involve all of your family members in the preparation process - from the youngest to the oldest. Whether by design or choice, many times, family event planning is left up to one or possibly two persons in the household. However, even the most skilled and organized can experience a plan that goes awry. When this happens, frustration follows.

Here are just a few suggestions to help you minimize the stress, so you can maximize the fun:

• Schedule a family meeting
• Write down all the things you want to do
• Prioritize
• Set your goals
• Develop a plan
• Assign tasks
• Evaluate the progress
• Most importantly, CELEBRATE your accomplishments!

Using this strategy ensures that everyone in the family knows the expectations and actively participants in making sure these expectations are met. In addition, the younger family members will learn valuable life skills such as setting goals, planning, time management, and working as a team.

The Green Holiday Table

James Stevenson, Pinellas County Extension Specialist, Urban Sustainability

The Green Guest

Many of us love to entertain during the holidays, and we may all be invited to a soiree or two during the dark months. You can have a green gathering, and be a green guest when making the holidays merry.

If you are throwing a party, get out that china and linen! Paper service may be easy-to-clean, but the next generations will be left to clean-up after our parties if we continue sending holiday plates, bowls and napkins to the landfill.

As with other food choices and purchases, remember fresh and local. Seasonal treats comingle with sweets and Florida-fresh hors d'oeuvre.

Always be prepared for leftovers. Get a supply of reusable plastic containers, and make sure guests leave with a portion of any extra food. In the spirit of giving and reducing holiday waste, these little snack-gifts will help your guests remember a grand time at your party.

Get your guests involved in recycling. Make sure they know where the bins are, for the occasional beverage can, aluminum chocolate-drop wrapper, or bit of holiday paper generated at a party.

If you are the guest, bring gifts in re-usable containers (gift bags or, if you are bringing food, a reusable plastic container or your own dish that you plan on retrieving later.)

Give the Gift of Green

James Stevenson, Pinellas County Extension Specialist, Urban Sustainability

Making Choices
Gift-giving has become a huge part of the holiday season. Jokes are made about receiving an obnoxious pair of socks, ridiculous sweater, or some other wildly-inappropriate item. This holiday-humor has a sinister undertone, however. If a gift is merely a token, and not carefully considered, that gift might very well end up in the waste stream. Just think of all the musical Santa ties stacked up in our local landfills!

When choosing a gift for a friend or loved-one, remember things like personal attire are just that: personal. A gift-card from a local business can be used at your friend’s leisure to get just what he or she wants. These almost waste-free gifts can solve lots of shopping conundrums.

Families may consider setting spending limits, or drawing names for gift exchange. This is certainly not a new idea, but according to a national survey, 70% of Americans would welcome less emphasis on gift giving and spending. (Center for a New American Dream) Especially during these troubled economic times, giving less means spending less, and less chance for the waste stream to burst its banks!

Ready, Set, SHOP! Buying Green for the Holidays

James Stevenson, Pinellas County Extension Specialist, Urban Sustainability

Welcome to the "12 Days of Green" this hooliday season. Our first is a three-part installment that will hopefully help you in making decisions when composing your holiday shopping lists.

Green Products
Holiday green. Holiday greenery. Greenbacks. Have you got “green-fatigue” already? Well, try to relax and we will help you not get overwhelmed by all the choices to be made in looking for and purchasing green products. Remember Vestina Crayton’s article on “Greenwashing,” and the tips offered in previous posts.

What purchases increase during the holidays? What green options are available?

We’ll cover gifts in later posts, but just think of what purchases increase during the winter holidays: Extra food, decorations, cards, and the fuel used to zoom around making these extra purchases all add up. Green choices will help reduce the strain on the wallet, and in turn may benefit the environment.

Food: What is “green food?” Not just veggies! When making choices about holiday meals, treats, snacks, etc., consider the source of the ingredients. You may want to purchase organics in an effort to satisfy “green guilt,” but as Jan Wade-Miller points out in Timely Topics: “On average, fresh produce in the United States travels anywhere from 1,300 to 2,000 miles from the farmer to the consumer -- a process that creates enormous amounts of greenhouse gasses. These food miles partially cancel the benefits of organic farming.” Buying locally grown produce has an immediate environmental benefit.

Decorations: Again, consider gussying-up your home this holiday with recycled items. Many thrift stores keep re-usable decorations ready for sale during this time of year. No sense in importing MORE plastic from overseas if there are suitable baubles already here! Consider supporting local green-grocers who often offer greenery, plants and flowers sourced much more locally than the big retailers. Supporting local business is great for our economy.

Cards: The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year n the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one card less, we'd save 50,000 cubic yards of paper. (Use Less Stuff) Consider sending an electronic card. The following are some examples of what is available on the internet:
American Greetings
Hallmark
Yahoo Greeting Cards

Finally, as with the rest of the year, plan your trips wisely. Jetting out the door for one cup of sugar wastes your valuable time as well as precious petroleum! Relax and plan your shopping trips to avoid unnecessary travel.

Get Ready for Green Holidays!

Beginning December 4th, Pinellas County Extension will be posting a new article to its online green newsletter, Thinking Green, every weekday on topics related to green holidays. Tips and facts on food, family, gifts and decorating will be covered. Join us for the “12 Days of Green” this holiday season! Visit http://www.pinellascountyextension.org/ to sign-up for this free, online newsletter.

Season’s Greenings – Holidays for a Healthy Planet
Join us for a fun, interactive presentation on having a green holiday! This is the time of year when families gather to celebrate. Exchanging gifts, decorating homes, and sharing meals are common activities. Join us to learn how to keep the green in your holiday celebrations. Participants will take home handy tip sheets for sustainable gifts, decorating and meal ideas. There is no fee for this program. Pre-registration is required. Recommended for adults, suitable for children ages 12 and up.

Saturday November 29th from 1:00-2:30 at Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center. To register, call: 453-6800

Saturday December 6th from 1:00-2:30 at the Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center. To register call: 453-6500

Saturday December 13th from 10:00-11:30 at Pinellas County Extension. To register, visit http://www.pinellascountyextension.org/ and visit our new Online Class Registration from the main page.