While the holiday season is a time of giving to friends and family, doing so can negatively impact the environment.
According to a Brightly article, Americans produce 25% more trash during the holidays than throughout the year due to food waste, wrapping paper, shopping bags, bows, ribbons and more.
“The holidays are one of the most environmentally impactful times of year,” Jessica Davis, IU interim director of sustainability, said. “Any way we can mitigate that impact not only has environmental benefits, but also the associated social and economic benefits.”
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With wrapping paper being the highest contributor to holiday waste, using gift wrap such as newspapers or reusable tote bags can help decrease the waste. Davis suggested bringing empty to-go containers to take leftover food home after holiday meals. She also recommended gifting an ‘experience’ rather than a physical present such as tickets to a show or sports game or offering your time by babysitting, doing yard work, etc. These experiences are not only wasteless, but they are more memorable.
“My immediate family has agreed that instead of getting each other gifts throughout the year, we instead opt to do something together as a family we all enjoy like visit a local museum or attend a theatrical event,” Davis said. “These are lived examples that can start meaningful discussions.”
More energy is wasted during the holiday season as well due to holiday lights and heating homes. To conserve this, Brightly said switching from traditional holiday lights to LED lights uses 80% less energy and can last up to 25 times longer.
IU freshman Thomas Miller, an environmental management major, says using a timer for holiday lights rather than leaving them on throughout the night is less wasteful. He also suggests turning down the thermostat when planning to leave home for long durations of time and in general, turning off lights when exiting a room.
“All these things will both save you money and reduce your impact on the environment,” Miller said.
IU sophomore Abigail Garrison, a supply chain management and sustainable business major, believes that being educated about the effects of waste on the environment and the world can influence one to develop better habits to be sustainable and conserve energy.
“While this is not an action that reduces waste, I find it important to be aware and knowing of what is happening in the state of Indiana, in our nation and in the world,” Garrison said. “It is important to be educated in order to advocate for policies that will benefit the environment.”
Garrison has been a member of the IU Student Government Sustainability for two years and currently serves as an intern for the Food Institute. Her primary role is to increase engagement of undergraduate students in the facility.
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Groups like Sustain IU and IU Student Government Sustainability aim to promote sustainable solutions, implement campus policies that will reduce environmental impacts and educate students about current issues affecting the environment.
“The [sustainability] groups that IU has are incredible and you will learn so much from others on how they care for the planet and the individual actions that they are taking,” Garrison said.
Garrison says the IU Food Institute plans to host a sustainability fair in the future featuring sustainability groups on campus to educate and inform students on how they can be more eco-friendly in their personal lives.
