Dr. Karen Bell

Keep Liberty Beautiful

Christmas is the time of year when you think of being around family and friends! I bet you are now thinking of all the food and gifts you may receive this year for the holidays.

Like Thanksgiving, please plan to make this a green Christmas. Old Saint Nick makes a list every year, so we must make a list and check it twice for ways we can help our environment. We have about 20 days for shopping, decorating, gifting, and food, so let’s start planning now. First things first! Let’s talk shopping, gifting, and reducing food waste! When you make your shopping list, plan your shopping trips too! It’s an exciting opportunity to shop with a purpose and reduce your environmental impact. When you know what you are shopping for and where to get it, you reduce the amount of time spent shopping, and the amount of gasoline wasted driving all over the place. Sometimes, it’s better to let your fingers do the shopping. Consider shopping by phone or on the internet. Just remember to look for items that are easy to ship and will require less packaging.

Also, consider buying several items in bulk to give as gifts. Buying in bulk will decrease waste and your total cost and significantly reduce your shopping carbon footprint. When you take the time to research items, you may be surprised by what you can find. Using a reusable shopping bag whenever possible reduces the number of plastic bags we accumulate, which sometimes ends up as litter on our highways. Each year, 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide. That comes out to about one million per minute! So many of these gazillion bags will end up as litter or in landfills. It helps to use reusable bags.

So, how do we take the stress out of gift-giving?

Buying and giving gifts is meant to be a loving gesture. Consider giving gift certificates. You will save wrapping paper and possibly save your gift recipient the pleasure of standing in one of those long “return” lines after Christmas. A gift certificate from someone’s favorite store or spa can be significant. Dressing it up in a pretty tin or mini stocking will make it even more memorable.

Join family members to draw names and reduce the number of gifts needing to be bought. Consider giving gifts of your time or your talents. Creating coupon gifts promising chores or activities that you can do for family members and friends is great for kids and adults. If you are crafty, consider making some of your gifts for your loved ones. I made beaded bracelets for my family and friends this year.

Consider making donations in honor of someone on your gift list. Donating to someone’s favorite charity or religious institution in their honor is another great package-free gift idea. Remember to get together with your family before Christmas to gather items like toys, games, and clothes no longer used to give to local charities.

Please make sure they are in good condition, though. Helping children participate in this gesture is a beautiful way to teach them to care for others.

Also, if you have any electronic waste, such as old gadgets or batteries, please dispose of them responsibly at designated e-waste collection points.

So now we have gone shopping and have the perfect environmentally kind gifts. Time to wrap!

Did you know that if each family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon each year, we could take that 38,000 miles of ribbon and tie a bow around the earth? That is a lot of ribbons! Did you know that half of Americans’ yearly paper is used to wrap and decorate consumer products? By reusing wrapping materials, we can feel a sense of pride in our responsible actions and the positive impact we’re making on the environment.

In the U.S., the annual trash from gift wrap and shopping bags totals over 4 million tons. If everyone wrapped just three gifts in reused paper or fabric gift bags, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 hockey rinks!

Here are some great eco-friendly ideas for gift wrapping: - Buy a gift wrap that contains recycled material. Avoid buying plastic- coated paper and foils that cannot be recycled or reused.

- Make gift tags from Christmas cards from last year. Make gift cards, even Christmas cards, on your computer with a printing program.

- Instead of gift wrap, use gift boxes, baskets, and other containers that can be reused for other gift-giving events or household purposes.

We can all have a “green” Christmas with some planning! So, let’s start that Christmas countdown. Remember to recycle your live Christmas tree on January 4, 2025, at the Hinesville Recycling Transfer Station, on the corner of West Oglethorpe and Fraser Drive. It is across from McDonald’s and Jet Gas Station. 

If you have any questions or need to contact us about KLB programs, please call us at (912) 880-4888 or email klcb@libertycountyga. gov. We would love for you to get involved with KLB. Share your own eco-friendly holiday practices with us and the community, and let’s inspire each other to make this Christmas a green one!