Have a More Bountiful Holiday Season – By Consuming Less
According to the ULS (Use Less Stuff) Report, and its editor Bob Lilienfeld, it is possible to consume less during the holidays and enjoy them more. His report, and his popular website, www.use-less-stuff.com, present some astonishing statistics about how much food and other resources are wasted in America each year, and how this unfortunate trend accelerates during the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
The ULS Report says that an additional 1.2 million tons of waste are generated per week during the holiday season—6 million tons in all. It cites data from the USDA that Americans throw away 25% of the food they purchase each year, amounting to 170 pounds per person—and this doesn’t even count food discarded by restaurants and retailers.
The remedies for all this waste during the holidays, according to ULS, are more thoughtful planning, gift buying, travel and holiday entertainment. In other words, using less stuff while you celebrate the season. To create awareness and build the spirit of conservation along with holiday spirit, the ULS has proclaimed the full week before Thanksgiving as “Use Less Stuff Week.” Lilienfeld’s report contains some simple but effective ways to conserve resources. He suggests reducing long distance holiday travel and enjoying the attractions and activities of your own hometown, both as a way of reducing gasoline consumption and bolstering local economies.
The ULS Report reminds us that lower wattage bulbs in holiday lights have the twin advantages of lower energy consumption and greater safety because they create less heat. Many of us receive dozens of mail order catalogues that stimulate our appetites for shopping before the holiday buying season commences; often we barely glance through them. ULS advises us to cancel the ones we don’t use. Each household canceling 10 catalogues would save the equivalent paper of a stack 2,000 miles high.
Other easy to implement solutions include planning shopping lists ahead with the goal of consolidating the number of trips to the mall. Editing the Christmas card list down to the most essential people is another way to conserve. ULS said all we have to do is send one fewer cards each in order to save 50,000 cubic yards of paper. Reusing boxes, wrapping paper and even the packing materials such as bubble wrap is not only a great conservation method but means you’re all set to wrap next year’s presents.
A few of his ideas are a little bizarre: if we reduced holiday ribbon usage by just 2 feet per household, we would save enough ribbon to encircle the globe twice. We’re all in favor of conserving petroleum but at least they should let us keep the pretty bows on our presents. And he also suggests turning down the heat before the guests arrive for your holiday party. Their body heat will eventually warm up the room. It gives new meaning to the term, “chilling out at a party.”
Another problematic idea was giving kids stocks and bonds as presents rather than toys and gadgets that they may become bored with and discard. Gifts from Wall Street are received with much more enthusiasm during Bull Market periods of course. In the last few years, boys and girls were probably overheard a few months after Christmas saying, “Gee, thanks, dad. Not only didn’t I get an Xbox 360 but that lousy utility stock you gave me is already down 20%.”
