12 Ways to Have an Eco Friendly Holiday

Between Christmas and New Year's Day, South Africans throw awaya million extra tonsof garbage eachweek, including holiday wrapping and packaging. Here are twelve eco friendly holiday tips to help you reduce your environmental footprint this holiday season.

1. Make Your Own Wrapping Paper or Go Without: Most mass-produced wrapping paper you find in stores isnot recyclablebecause of the shiny coatings, foils and coluors, and therefore ends up in landfills.

Instead, here's a great chance to get creative! Wrap presents with old maps, the comics section of a newspaper, or children's artwork. Or use a scarf, attractive dish towel, bandana, or some other useful cloth item that is a gift in and of itself.

2. Buy Energy-Saving LED Holiday Lights: Thanks to technology, you can now decorate your house with LED lights that use 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights, and can save your family a lot of money on the electricity bills.

3. Add Organic & Local Foods to Your Holiday Feast: Support localfamily farmers who grow sustainable meat and produce. Not only does local, organic food taste better, but you'll also be doing your part for your community and the planet too.

4. Recycle Your Christmas Tree: Each year, 10 million Christmas trees end up in the landfill. While your tree won't fit in the recycling bin with your newspapers and bottles, you can recycle your tree, turn your tree to mulch or wood chips.

5. Donate Your Time or Money to an Environmental Cause: Get into the holiday spirit by volunteering! There are countless ways to help improve your community—and the planet—from cleaning up a local river to helping underprivillaged.

6. Make Handcrafts & DIY Gifts: There are so many ways to reduce your consumption impact when giving holiday gifts. DIY gifts like homemade ornaments, crafty picture frames with photos of loved ones in themcan be as much fun to make and give as to receive.

7. Give Experiential Gifts: The best gift to give is the gift of an experience. By giving gifts that can be experienced, you can minimize wrapping and shopping, and still win points with the receiver. Anything that allows your loved one to spend quality time experiencing something fun, like a trip to Ushaka, play or concert, a picnic on the beach, or even a homemade dinner.

8. Purchase Eco-Friendly & Locally Made Gifts: If you choose to purchase retail gifts, try to select products that come in minimal packaging, are made from sustainable materials, and can be easily recycled.

9. Stuff Stockings With Yummy, Natural Treats: Stocking stuffers tend to be small, plastic trinkets that end up broken, lost or in the garbage by the end of January. Instead, fill your stockings with yummy, healthy treats like dried fruit, nuts, clementines and evenhomemade holiday cookies.

How are you being green this holiday season

We Wish You a Peaceful Holiday and an Abundant New Year!