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If we really want to see how Americans are caring for their environment then please take notice of the curbside trash the week after Christmas.
Today the news featured a story about Amazon shipping. It is impressive as tons of cardboard boxes speed along many miles of conveyor ending up in the correct shipping container. Tons of cardboard most of which will end up in a landfill and not recycled. Some dead Christmas trees will be recycled into mulch, etc,. but many more will pile up in the dumps. Not to mention the mountains of plastic waste.
I think 99.9% of Americans are well aware of our polluted oceans, air, and overflowing landfills leaching untold chemicals into our drinking water. Yet they continue to order items from sites like Amazon without any thought of the shipping container or the energy, (fuels), expended to deliver that one item to their doorstep.
They will wrap the boxes with miles and miles of wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows that will all end up in a landfill.
So little concerned are we at our excessive energy usage that many decorate their houses with thousands and thousands of lights that waste massive amounts of electricity.
Planning for the proper disposal of Christmas waste items would be a great Christmas present for our planet.
Having just returned from a scientific jaunt to the local landfill I can tell you that cardboard is not likely to end up in the landfill. It’s one of the few recycling streams that still makes money, and those amazon boxes are considered the “good stuff”. I wouldn’t worry about the cardboard.
As for the issue with delivery. Amazon has a fulfillment center in my state. I am not sure what is so much better about me driving to a bunch of stores in order to pick up items vs. the mailman who is already going to be in my neighborhood.
As for the trees, a nonprofit I work with sometimes takes the old Xmas trees (as long as there is no tinsel) and use it to build temporary habitat for wildlife along fragmented habitat areas. Then in the spring they go in he wood chipper.
My family doesn’t use wrapping paper, and I am pleased to see many of my students, friends and family are using gift bags, and reusing them multiple times.
My family doesn’t use wrapping paper, and I am pleased to see many of my students, friends and family are using gift bags, and reusing them multiple times.
I have a retail store and we give our customers unprinted gift bags instead of typical plastic bags. We know they'll reuse them many times. We also offer nice tissue paper for free that we pull from incoming shipments.
When we lived in Balboa California, the residents would bring their Christmas trees to the beach on New Years eve. We would throw them into a pile and set them alight. The 20 minute fire from 100 Christmas trees in a pile was incredible. You had to stand about 100 feet away or it was too hot. Eventually there were complaints from the airport about ten miles away. If the planes flew over the fire during takeoff, the rising heat wave would shake them up more than a little.
There are lots of cool ways you can recycle Christmas trees.
LOL, that reminds me of the time, 25 years ago, when my little boy came running outside to where I was and said the house was on fire.
My ex had stuffed the Christmas tree in the fireplace. Don't ever do that.
I have a retail store and we give our customers unprinted gift bags instead of typical plastic bags. We know they'll reuse them many times. We also offer nice tissue paper for free that we pull from incoming shipments.
Good for you!
I'm on record here on other threads as minimizing the environmental problems of plastics. As small as they may be, they're still not zero. Paper products, OTOH, have virtually no downside at all and have certain benefits (fungi, after all, have to earn a living too
BTW- ink today is mostly soy-based organics and probably can be used with impunity, if it would help you a little to advertise on those bags.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714
Having just returned from a scientific jaunt to the local landfill I can tell you that cardboard is not likely to end up in the landfill. It’s one of the few recycling streams that still makes money, and those amazon boxes are considered the “good stuff”. I wouldn’t worry about the cardboard.
As for the issue with delivery. Amazon has a fulfillment center in my state. I am not sure what is so much better about me driving to a bunch of stores in order to pick up items vs. the mailman who is already going to be in my neighborhood.
As for the trees, a nonprofit I work with sometimes takes the old Xmas trees (as long as there is no tinsel) and use it to build temporary habitat for wildlife along fragmented habitat areas. Then in the spring they go in he wood chipper.
My family doesn’t use wrapping paper, and I am pleased to see many of my students, friends and family are using gift bags, and reusing them multiple times.
We ended up with a total of 23 cardboard Amazon boxes to recycle. I broke them down, but along with other recycling such as bottles and cans from Christmas, not all fits in the big bin, so we'll have to save some until next week's pickup.
Our local St Vincent's Thrift Store invested $Thousands in a huge cardboard compactor-- if you're giving it away, may as well be to charity. Our local kid's wrestling club takes in Al cans.
And you think we got problems with refuse? Rome is besieged. Garbage collection runs way behind production, mostly due to the insane Italian labor laws: more paid holidays than paid work days (I'm kidding, but it's almost true), and add in a recently damaged & out of commission incinerator site. https://roma.corriere.it/notizie/cro...1a115697.shtml
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