It’s the most wonderful time of the year! With the holiday season around the corner, many find themselves scrambling to get the best deals and are dazzled by 30% off “everything must go” sales. Unfortunately, these big sales can be wasteful and harmful to our environment.
According to Brightly, a website promoting sustainable living, Americans toss out 25% more trash during the holidays than any other time during the year. This includes food waste from trying out holiday recipes, endless wrapping paper, shopping bags, bows and ribbons.
USC Environmental Studies Professor, Douglas Becker, explains the environmental impacts that overbuying has on our planet and how to live sustainability during this season.
Douglas Becker: “Whenever comes to any sort of trash, remember that the order that we need to consider our trash when that’s the issue is reduce, reuse, recycle, when whenever possible, reduce that.”
It’s easier said than done. Just this Black Friday, Americans around $9 billion, and on Cyber Monday alone, online sales hit a record of $11.3 billion.
Douglas Becker: “Overspending reinforces norms that will lead to environmental degradation, overuse of resources, etc.”
To avoid overspending during this holiday season, you can get creative with your gift ideas. Professor Becker gives another option by encouraging us to move away from materialism.
Douglas Becker: “I’m a big believer in in gifting experiences. Go out and, you know, go do something fun together as the experience and let that be the gifts that you, you know, that that that you exchange. It doesn’t always have to be stuff.”
And when going holiday shopping, Professor Decker advises to...
Douglas Becker: Seek out companies that have less of a carbon footprints. Seek out companies that promote sustainability. And whenever possible. Again, if you’re buying stuff, buy from local producers, buy local.
So this holiday season, walking in a Winter Wonderland also means being aware and mindful of how much you’re spending on holiday preparations.