After the holidays, we’re often left with the problem of what to do with all the waste — from the platters of uneaten food to the Christmas tree to the old things that the shiny new gifts replaced. The answer: reuse or recycle them. See my new “Holiday Guide to Reuse & Recycling” for practical, [...]
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Green Giving for the Holidays
I still remember virtually every gift I received in childhood, not because the gifts were so special, but because they were so few. Though I was a comfortable child of the post-war boom, the times were thrifty compared to today. I never had more than a few dolls, games, crayons, records, books, a bike and [...]
Green Gifts and Entertaining for Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s
Interested in having a high-spirited, low-impact holiday celebration, but stymied by the culture around you — maybe even within your own family? You can make it happen! Just do the usual things — from gift-giving to feasting — sustainably. For instance, buy durable gifts that will last, avoid overly packaged products, use real plates and [...]
Green Holiday Entertaining — and a Recipe for Vegan Latkes
When you throw a dinner or party for the holidays — whether for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year’s — you use a lot more of the earth’s resources than you do in day-to-day life. How can you reduce the ecological footprint of your feast without compromising on hospitality? Follow the game plan in Holiday [...]
A Different Approach to Holiday Giving
In our family we celebrate Hanukkah with very little gift-giving except to the kids. We’ve even cut way back on their gifts in recent years — to things they’ll love but can also really use. Gift-giving at Hanukkah parties is more difficult to control. At our annual celebration with my brother’s family, we have tried [...]
Organic Thanksgiving: what you get for your money
I just came across a less-than-shocking exposé on the “true” cost of an organic Thanksgiving dinner in Smart Money, revealing that you could pay 75% more for your organic feast. The slant of the piece (in a column called “Rip-offs”) is that conventional and organic food are essentially the same — just different lifestyle choices. [...]
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This Green Blog is the companion blog to NRDC's This Green Life, a green living column written by Sheryl Eisenberg for the Natural Resources Defense Council. (Subscribe to get it for FREE each month.) Sheryl has also written Greentips for the Union of Concerned Scientists and designs websites for environmental groups and others with her firm, Mixit Productions.
Holiday gifts that save the environment
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