Hello again, however you celebrated the holidays I hope they allowed you some time with friends and family and the opportunity to relax a bit before you leap right back into the treadmill we all typically experiemce. In this neighbourhood we have alleys behind the house for refuse collection and it was while taking the trash out this morning that I was (unhappily) astounded at the increased levels of waste from seemingly every house on the block due to the holidays.

Thus I was scouring the internet for some useful (and current) stats about the waste that the Holidays create. The only very recent data (2008) I could find was for the UK - but if you translate the numbers and accept that the UK has about one sixth the population of the US and Canada combined it gives you a good idea of what we’re looking at. Before asking you to read on, please know that I simply love numbers and statistics so this is one of those chances where I just devour the information on offer. So, with that said, here are some statistics for the UK for 2008 (population 61.4 million)

Multiply by about 5 or 6 for North America!!

• The Royal Mail (the postal service in Britain) deliver approximately 150 million cards and packages each day in the two weeks leading up to Christmas.
• Estimates suggest about 1 billion Christmas cards (17 per every person in the UK) will ultimately end up in the trash
• 8.1 Million Christmas Trees were purchased, fewer than 20% will be recycled
• The UK will throw out about 85 square km of wrapping paper this season, enough to cover Manhattan and wrap most of the skyscrapers within it!!
• Can and bottle use (and waste) increases by over 125% for the month of December in the UK
• Around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging will be thrown away over Christmas
• About 3,000 tonnes of aluminium foil are used to wrap Turkeys to cook this month
  

These are just the easy to measure stats of what the holidays can create in terms of waste. When we receive new clothes are we disposing of the clothes they may replace or donating them for future use? The same can be said for electronics, appliances and household furnishings. Recycling is not a chore - I think its a duty we really all share. If consumption is a by-product of our society surely the appropriate disposal or recycling of items is the least we should be doing.

Not to be a grinch, but does every 10th house in this city need (literally) thousands of lights burning all night long to show the holiday spirit? Within 10 miles of here you can take the family out to see amazing displays of hundreds of thousands of lights at The Zoo, The Train Park, Downtown and other special displays. At some point it must reach overkill surely if every house is trying to enter the competition? If you are going to have lights at least put them on a timer, not many people are driving around here enjoying the lights at 2am after all.

As with most things, its all in the planning.

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Tags: cardboard recycling, christmas lights, christmas tree recycling, christmas trees, energy conservation, energy wastage, Manhattan, paper recycling, planet forward, recycling clothes, Royal Mail

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