Creating homemade decorations was my favorite holiday activity growing up. Coming up with new ways to make gift wrap, gift tags and ornaments from things found around the house and around the neighborhood was part of the challenge and the fun. With being green on all our minds this holiday season, we have an even greater reason to be resourceful and to look to nature for inspiration. Here are some of my favorite projects you and your children can do together:
Green your gift wrap:
Save money on all that gift wrap that ordinarily gets ripped to shreds and thrown away. Make your own gift wrap by sprucing up paper grocery bags or recycled brown paper. Create nature stamps by coating leaves and flowers with non-toxic paint and stamping them on the paper. You can also find treasures from outside and glue them right onto the paper, or simply color and paint your own designs. For gift wrap that is reusable year after year, try wrapping your gifts in fabric Japanese style using a furoshiki. Click here to learn how to wrap virtually any gift shape in a furoshiki. If all that tying and twisting has gotten your mind in a knot, simply secure the fabric with a bow.
Green your labels:
Gather holiday cards you have received and let you child cut gift labels and name cards for the dinner table. He or she can simply cut off the written message and keep the cover image or cut the image into sections to make little tags. You can cut fun shapes like stars, hearts and trees to give the image new life. Or attach a ribbon and viola! You have an ornament!
Green your decorations:
Bring nature in from the cold to add life to your holiday decor. Evergreens, pine cones and berries make beautiful garlands, centerpieces and accessories to gift wrap. Gather dead vines to make a wreath that will last for years. Pine cones can be placed in a bowl and splashed with cinnamon and clove to add a nice aroma, or used to hold those homemade place cards previously mentioned at the dinner table. Remember to return these items outdoors when you are done so that they can biodegrade back into the soil and become part of next year’s evergreen boughs and berries.
America Recycles Day November 15th
America Recycles Day (ARD), November 15th, is a day dedicated to educating and encouraging Americans to recycle and buy recycled products. Now in its 12th year, ARD has grown to include millions of supporters who have pledged to increase their recycling habits and to buy products made with recycled materials. Volunteer coordinators across America are organizing events in their schools and communities to educate and inspire others to recycle.
To become better informed about recycling, to take the recycling pledge, or to sign up to create your own ARD event, visit www.americarecyclesday.org.
“The Story of Stuff” is a must-see short video about where all of our “stuff” comes from, how it’s made and where it all ends up. It also reveals what effects the manufacturing, selling and disposing of all our “stuff” has on our planet, our bodies, and even our happiness. With great animations, The Story of Stuff is an engaging, thought provoking and life changing video. Going to the store will never be the same again!
You can even recycle your shoes!
Springtime means cleaning out closets to make room for summer clothes. But what do you do with all those old pairs of shoes? Believe it or not, even shoes are recyclable! They are chopped up and made into new basketball courts, tracks, fields and playgrounds. Drop those old sneakers off at a shoe recycling center and you might just find yourself running on top of them next year.
To find out where you can drop off your shoes visit the Nike Reuse a Shoe website or RunforthePlanet.com.
Little Green Reader Question:
I heard that batteries are bad for the environment and shouldn’t be thrown out with the regular trash. How do I get rid of them so that they don’t cause any harm?
Recycle your used batteries
Resident Expert Answer:
You are right, batteries do contain chemicals like mercury, lead, cadmium and nickel that can harm you and the environment when they are thrown out with the trash. Batteries can release toxic substances into the ground as well as into the air when burned in garbage incinerators. Luckily, today’s batteries contain far less toxic materials then they did way back when your parents were kids. Many towns are even advising their residents to simply throw batteries out with the trash. But until batteries are made out of soybeans, there is still some risk of hazardous materials contaminating our soil, water and air. And like all other garbage, when recycling is an option, that’s your best choice. Recycling saves resources like recovered plastic and metals that can be made into new batteries.
There are two good options for recycling your batteries. You can visit earth911.com to search for places in your area that will recycle your batteries. Some stores like Whole Foods Market and Radio Shack are starting to accept them.
If you can’t find a place in your area that will accept them, you can order a battery recycling kit, like the iRecycle Kit from Battery Solutions and start collecting them right at home. Once you have enough batteries to fill the box, ship it pre-paid to their recycling center. This is a great community service project that you can set up at your school, club or church. You will make a lot of people, who just like you are bewildered with how dispose of their batteries, very grateful!
