Giving Thanks to the Planet

Ideas for a waste free Thanksgiving and Halloween!





















October is here and it's a month of feasting! Whether that is Thanksgiving staples or candy. In either case, celebrations undoubtedly mean that there is more waste than usual and being that this month also includes Waste Reduction Week (Oct 21-27) in Canada, it's a great chance to practice some waste reducing tips! Show your thanks to our planet by cutting down on waste!

Thanksgiving. This national holiday is usually accompanied by feasting as a harvest festival and that means food waste. Here are a few ways to avoid the waste.
  • Share food. Whether this means inviting people over, giving leftovers to your neighbours, or freezing as much as you can to give to others later, sharing food keeps the food waste down and is in the spirit of the season!
  • Give yourself time. We live busy lives and frequently the holidays creep up on us, but prepare ahead of time and you can avoid a lot of waste. This lets you buy in bulk to avoid packaging, seek out ingredients from farmers' markets, and decorate your home in a sustainable way.

Halloween. This fun-filled festival has become more and more popular over the years, but it's still linked with a lot of waste, from disposable decorations to candy wrappers. But it doesn't have to stay that way.
  • Take the time to upcycle. Halloween can actually be a really great chance to turn old items into something new and fun, and to flex your creative muscles! A quick internet search will turn up hundreds of crafts you can make from items around the home, and costumes, too! This will also save you some money!
  • Pick the better candy. As much as it would be great if we had candy in compostable wrappers or could make our own treats, that isn't usually feasible these days. That being said, you can pick treats that are less of a problem. Candies in those little cardboard boxes or in foil wrappers can be recycled. You might not have any control on whether people actually recycle them, but giving them the option can help.

Another great way to support the planet is to support environment educators, like Green Calgary! You can make a donation here to support our programs!

Share your own tips for waste free holidays with us on our social media accounts Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hidden Gems of Calgary: Part 1

A little over a week ago, some of the Green Calgary staff went on a hike together to Twelve Mile Coulee as part of a team building exercise. While we were walking, between identifying birds or plants, we talked about Twelve Mile Coulee itself. Of our 6 participants, about half had been to Twelve Mile Coulee before, some more than others, and the other three had either only heard of it or not at all! So, naturally, we started to talk about other hidden gems in the city. Parkland or urban wild spaces that we've discovered or that we go to all the time, that others might not have heard of. What was impressive is that no one had complete knowledge of all the places mentioned. Some people knew more or less of these hidden gems of Calgary, but nobody knew all of them! We decided to share 5 with you in the Urban Park category, but we hope to continue the series later with other hidden gems of Calgary. Here are 5 hidden gems in Calgary: Parks Edition! 1. Twelve Mile Coulee: Of cour...
Read more

Got Tire(d) of Winter? Recycle Them!

Image
  With the 20cm of snow this week, many of us are switching out our old all-season tires for winter tires to ensure road safety and precent our vehicles from skidding off on icy roads. While average tires have five years lifespan and absolute replacement timeline of ten years, it is inevitable that many Calgarians will throw away tires at some point in our lifetime. Not sure what to do with your old ones? Take them to one of the three City of Calgary landfill sites for FREE recycling! h    Spyhill Landfill 11808 69 Street NW Mon-Sat 7:30am - 5pm   East Calgary Landfill 3801 - 68 Street SE Mon-Sat 7:30am - 5pm     Shepard Landfill 12111 -  68 Street SE Mon-Sat 8am - 5pm Life After Re(Tire)ment   Recycled tires are processed into crumbs and remade into new products such as shingles, playground tiles, sidewalks, and more! Have questions about recycling? Check out the City of Calgary What Goes Where for more information! 
Read more

The Little Green Library Reviews: The Sustainability Secret

The Little Green Library Reviews The Sustainability Secret By Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn Welcome to the Little Green Library Reviews! This year Green Calgary is looking to help you set and keep a green goal and part of that initiative is the new Little Green Library - a collection of materials for you to browse and borrow to enhance your knowledge of green life. To help you decide what to read from the library, our staff are writing reviews of the material. First up, Hillary from our Green Hub read The Sustainability Secret by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (2015). This is what she had to say about it: "This investigative novel, expanding on the documentary Cowspiracy (Andersen & Kuhn, dir. 2014), looks into the animal agriculture industry and how it is, unknown to most, the largest contributor to climate change worldwide.  Current UN statistics show that agriculture, forestry and other land use cause 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions while the transportation sector...
Read more