STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
Phil Bryant, GOVERNOR
MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Trudy D. Fisher, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Robbie Wilbur
December 21, 2012 601/961-5277
MDEQ Promotes Tips for a Green Holiday Season
(JACKSON, Miss.) -- MDEQ encourages Mississippians to remember the
environment this holiday season through waste reduction, reuse, and
recycling practices to "green up" the holiday season. According to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, the amount of household trash increases by
25 percent ? or 25 million tons nationally? between Thanksgiving and the
New Year. Trimming the holiday waste stream doesn't require much effort.
MDEQ suggests the following green practices:
Decorating Ideas
●Consider having a potted Christmas tree that can be replanted in the wild,
in your yard or kept and re-used the next year.
●Recycle your Christmas tree if the service is offered in your community or
consider using an artificial tree that can be used year after year.
●Use trimmed branches from your Christmas tree for wreaths or hearth or
table decorations rather than discarding them immediately.
●Decorate your home, tree, and centerpiece with holly, cedar, berries,
cranberries, popcorn, fruits and nuts - some which can be consumed and all
of which can be composted.
Gift Shopping and Wrapping
●When you do your holiday shopping, bring your own re-usable canvas tote
bags and avoid using plastic bags, particularly for just one item.
●Consider re-using wrapping or other reusable paper when wrapping Christmas
gifts. If every American family wrapped just three presents in re-used
materials, that would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
●Have children make their own wrapping paper by designing and coloring
brown paper grocery bags, using old homework pages, old Christmas Cards, or
hand drawn pictures to wrap gifts in. Grandparents will appreciate the
special touch of a grandchild to any gift.
●Consider using commonly discarded paper items for wrapping gifts?Sunday
comics, old posters, maps, discarded sheet music, and wallpaper scraps for
wrapping paper.
●Use and re-use gift bags instead of wrapping paper.
●Avoid using metallic gift wrapping paper because this paper is generally
not recyclable.
●Choose products that use less packaging material.
●Look for products with the U.S. EPA's Energy Star logo. These items have
been evaluated and rated for their energy efficiency.
Gift Ideas
●Home-baked cookies, bread, or jams or a plant or tree that can be planted
in the recipient's yard.
●Consider gifts that keep on giving such as a compost bin, battery charger,
rechargeable batteries, compact fluorescent light bulbs, a perpetual
calendar, or an erasable message board.
●Give two gifts in one by using baskets, scarves, or pillowcases to wrap
gifts.
●Give gifts that don't create wastes such as passes to the zoo or an
amusement park, music lessons, tennis, golf, or other sports lessons,
memberships to an organization, tickets to a concert or movie, dinner at a
restaurant, a subscription to an online magazine or newspaper, an IOU to
help rake leaves or repair a leaky faucet.
●Give gifts that get "used up" such as candles, soap, or seeds for the
garden.
●Give durable toys for gifts that are made from wood or metal so that they
can be passed down, even becoming collectible items.
●If purchasing electronic items such as a computer, television, cell phone
or gaming station, find a retailer that will take back the outdated or
obsolete item being replaced and that will recycle the obsolete item.
●If you cannot find retailers with take back programs, recycle the obsolete
electronic devices through local community recycling programs or donate
computers or televisions that have useful life to community groups, local
schools, or nonprofit organizations. (Please don't burden organizations
with extremely old or non-functioning electronic items.)
After The Holidays
●Clean out the closets and donate used toys and clothing to charitable
organizations.
●Recycle your Christmas tree if the service is offered in your community.
Christmas trees can be used for fish spawning habitats, for mulch for
public landscaping projects and homeowner use, for boiler fuel, and for
lake, river, and beach front stabilization.
●Save wrapping paper, bows, and ribbons to use for the next holiday season.
If you can't re-use these items, try to recycle as much of the wrapping
paper, gift boxes, bags, and gift packaging materials as possible.
●Make a New Year's resolution to start a recycling program at home or at
work. Call your city or county to find out more information about recycling
opportunities.
●Remove yourself from mailing lists for catalogs and other similar mail
order circulars. Most of these catalogs and retail items can be found and
ordered from retailers' websites.
For more information on waste reduction, re-use and recycling programs or
ideas, contact your local solid waste department, Keep Mississippi
Beautiful affiliate, County Extension Service agents or the MDEQ. Simple,
common sense steps can provide an inexpensive and enduring gift to our
natural resources as well as leave more "green" in your checkbook.
MDEQ Social Media Connections for Information/Press Releases:
●If you would like to receive press releases on MDEQ issues, meetings,
beach advisories, and other info that affect the Gulf Coast via text
message, then text "coastmedia" to 601-863-8082.
●If you would like to receive press releases on MDEQ issues that affect the
Jackson area, then text "jxnmedia" to 601-863-8082.
●Follow MDEQ on Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/MDEQ
●Connect with MDEQ on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/MDEQ/118172664880239?v=wall
# # #
(See attached file: christmas.pdf)
Mr. Robbie Wilbur
Communications Director
Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality
Post Office Box 2261
Jackson, Mississippi 39225
601/961-5277
601/421-5699 (c)
601/961-5715 (f)
rwilbur@deq.state.ms.us
Connect with MDEQ on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/MDEQ/118172664880239?v=wall
Follow MDEQ on Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/MDEQ
