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What You Can Do: WoodWise™ Holidays
 Did you know that there is wood in the tape you use to wrap presents?
From tape to cards to decorations, many holiday trimmings contain wood. And many of them will end up in the trash once festivities are over. Each year, Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year's holiday period than at any other time of year.
WoodWise™ Tips:
- Buy cards that are made of tree-free or recycled paper. For example, Grow-A-Notes™ are made from recycled, biodegradable paper containing seeds; after the holidays, you can put the entire card in the ground and watch it grow. Search our National Green Pages™ online for more options like this.
- You can send electronic greeting cards that save paper and help environmental organizations at the same time. www.care2.com donates money for conservation every time you send a card from their web sites.
- Make a commitment not to buy any new gift-wrap this year. Reuse old wrapping paper or put your gifts in reusable bags or boxes. Be creative about giving old materials new life-scraps of fabric, magazines, or calendars make great patchwork bags or collage wrapping paper.
- Host a zero-waste party. Minimize the garbage by asking people to bring their own cups and using fabric tablecloths and napkins; then be sure to recycle any post-party cans and bottles.
- Give non-material gifts: tickets to an event, a contribution of your own time or talent, or a donation to a charitable organization in someone's name. Your friends and family will appreciate such unique, thoughtful gifts, and they won't have anything to throw away or return to the store. Organizations like Alternative Gifts International (800-842-2243 or www.altgifts.org) offer gifts from bicycles to literacy training that can be donated in someone's name to people in need.
WoodWise™ CHALLENGE:
Hallmark Cards has demonstrated an environmental commitment by signing a pledge to keep old-growth wood out of their products.
Send them [Mr. Donald J. Hall, Jr., President, Hallmark Cards, 2501 McGee, P.O. Box 419580, Kansas City, MO 64141-6580] a recycled or tree-free card to thank them and let them know they can strengthen their environmental leadership by offering WoodWise™ options.
Here's a light-hearted poem to get the message across:
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A greeting card's a special way
To tell someone I care.
But using so much paper up
Could strip our forests bare.
I'd like my cards to be tree-free
from fibers like kenaf,
Or have post-consumer content
That's more than merely half.
A company that made such cards
would win my heart for good.
I'd buy those cards with hard-earned green
— and waste a lot less wood. |
More WoodWise Consumer Guides
• Buy WoodWise Products
• Find Good Wood
• Stop Junk Mail
• WoodWise Holidays
• WoodWise Clothing
• WoodWise Magazines
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