Some Ways to Recycle the Best of the Holidays : Thoughtful ideas and gifts can cut down on waste and help make the season both happy and ecologically sound.
The idea of a “green” Christmas isn’t really startling to anyone living in our county. Our coastal climate means that a “White Christmas” is highly unlikely. But in recent years, the meaning of green has broadened--especially in the 25 years since Earth Day has been an annual event. Of late, ideas about a green Christmas have gone way, way beyond stringing colored lights on palm trees.
Many important aspects of the holiday have taken on an environmental coloration, so to speak. Even the venerable Christmas tree has become a thing that is routinely recycled, replanted, even returned to companies that lease them to homes and businesses.
The county of Ventura operates two information lines dispensing “Tips for Eco-Holidays” (also the title of a county newsletter). Several local municipalities have an expert available by phone to explain how to save the planet, save money and save on landfill costs--while still having a happy holiday. Last year, for instance, this resulted in 80,000 trees being recycled into garden mulch, according to county officials.
Some local fire departments, concerned more about the fire hazard posed by dry, inflammable Christmas trees than broader environmental concerns, have let it be known that a plastic version in your home would make them very happy. It would make this columnist happy to know if there is tree made from recycled plastic available. (I’m serious. Please respond if you know a source.)
This holiday season, some quaint customs of Christmases past are being joined to timely eco-consciousness. “Give a gift certificate redeemable at a local plant nursery,” suggests Toni Moran, spokesperson for the Ventura County Solid Waste Management Department.
Also, live, potted, and therefore reusable Christmas trees of a novel character--actually sculpted rosemary bushes--are on sale at local nurseries such as Green Thumb and Matilija Gardens.
Jessica Craven, Oxnard’s recycling person, invoked an old California notion of decorating a live--and presumably reusable--cactus at Christmastime.
“And they’re drought tolerant,” she said.
Some ideas of local environmentalists are more recent--indeed they would have been unthinkable decades ago. Had a child in the ‘50s been presented with a Christmas gift wrapped in the Sunday comics there might have been jeers or tears. Today’s planet-wise tyke might offer a “way cool” before opening the package.
For a century stale popcorn has been strung on a thread and festooned Christmas trees, but only since Earth Day I has it been used as packing material to mail breakable gifts, after which it is composted.
Another county recycling worker, Lorraine Timmons, provided Earthwatch with some ideas that businesses can adopt to green the holidays, such as leasing a big, living Christmas tree for the waiting or conference room. Such a forest-saving service is available locally. Mark Grant of Tree Concern/Plant Manning in Thousand Oaks (499-4385) will deliver and pick up what he called a “Grade AA Colorado Spruce,” starting at $100.
Kinko’s Copies, with headquarters is in Ventura, makes a big effort to use bags and other packing materials with a high recycled content--and urges customers worldwide to specify that copying work be done on recycled paper. This sort of thing should, of course go on all-year round.
The powers that be in Ventura City Hall have taken up the cause by putting up a holiday display of various kinds of recycled gift wrapping suggestions. It surely is a sign of the times when there can be, side by side in a government building, fetchingly laid-out displays praising a detective-story writer (Earl Stanley Gardner) and a wrapping-paper vendor (Earth Care Paper).
Details
* HOT LINE: For resource-saving “Tips for the Eco-Holidays,” including drop-off locations for recycling of Christmas trees, call Ventura County’s Recycling Hot Line--654-3935.
* SPIRIT OF GIVING: After the holidays, to donate a live, potted Christmas tree that can be planted in a Ventura County park call 654-3945.
* RECYCLING TIPS: Some municipalities which provide tips on holiday recycling are Camarillo, 388-5392; Oxnard, 385-8061; Simi Valley, 583-6753; Ventura, 652-4525; Ojai, 640-2555 and Thousand Oaks, 449-7283.
