American households spend around $230 a year on holiday decorations — mostly plastics and other materials that take a heavy toll on the environment to produce and can’t be recycled. These are a handful of the worst offenders, along with sweet sustainable swaps.
Tinsel
Bah humbug! Those shimmery, silvery strands that give your tree an icy, fairy-tale finish are made from PVC and can’t be recycled. They’re also virtually impossible to disentangle from a live tree, which can pose some recycling issues.
Sustainable swap: For a touch of sparkle, hang some silver glass (not plastic) globe ornaments, or cut heavy-duty foil into circles, and glue them back-to-back along a length of cotton string for a gleaming silver garland.
Artificial greenery
Bah humbug! Fake evergreen branches and wreaths — and faux mistletoe and holly — are made from toxic, petroleum-based products that require an enormous amount of energy to produce and which can’t be recycled. Keep using what you already have by all means, but make a pact with yourself to eschew the phony greenery and deck the halls with the real deal from this year forth.
Sustainable swap: Hit your local gardening center for natural holiday greenery. Not only does it look and feel real — because it is — but there’s just nothing like the natural scent of pine to bring holiday vibes to your home. To keep the greenery fresh, cut the stems, and soak them in water overnight to fully hydrate before you decorate.
Spray snow
Bah humbug! Spray-on flocking, which you can get at your local craft store, goes on your tree and windows, mimicking freshly fallen snow. But this stuff is nowhere near as pure as snow. In fact, it typically contains solvents, propellants, flame retardants, and other toxic chemicals — and it’s very harmful to pets who eat it.
Sustainable swap: You can find dozens of recipes online to make your own, nontoxic fake snow — or you can use cotton balls, poly fill, or leftover spider webbing from Halloween.
Holiday lights
Bah humbug! According to NASA, some parts of the earth — including America’s suburbs — are up to 50 percent brighter between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. The Energy Savings Trust reckons that the amount of carbon dioxide produced by holiday lights each year could power 15,500 hot air balloons.
Sustainable swap: As your holiday string lights go kaput, replace them with LED lights, which use 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights. Solar-powered outdoor string lights use zero energy, but they’re not as bright as you might like. Don’t toss your old string lights in the trash — they can be recycled for their plastic, glass, and copper, but you may need to deliver them to the recycling center or find a holiday lights recycling drop box in your town.