I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas
copyright by K. John Lee

Several years ago, I had the dubious honor of serving as my condo association’s board president. I recall my first Christmas as president, when the trash chute of our seven-story building backed up to the 6th floor. The combination of additional holiday trash and the trash company’s day off created a huge log jamb. Next year, I thought I would prepare better by leaving a message on the bulletin board a few days before Christmas. It read something like this, “Please refrain from discarding all of your holiday trash into the trash chute until December 27th.” Despite my request, the trash chute still backed up. In fact, I believe that it even reached the 6th floor again.

So how is this for a big discovery: During the December holidays, most households generate a lot of trash! At my home, we celebrate Christmas. With two children, there is an abundance of wrapping paper along with boxes, ribbons, etc. At one point, it is my duty to bring in the heavy re-enforcements: a big construction-grade trash bag. Of course, the bag is filled by the end of the day.

I jokingly refer to my monthly jaunt to the club warehouse (let’s call it “Tossed-Co”) as my trip to buy “landfill.” In all seriousness, I do not need a consumer researcher to tell me that many shoppers at Tossed-Co end up using more paper towels, because in the back of their minds, they know that there are 11 other rolls in the pantry! Between, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins and tissue, I am convinced that my family consumes twice the pulp products that my childhood family used (i.e. pre-Tossed-Co.)

It is estimated that we, Americans, use around 25% of the world’s fossil fuels while comprising less than 5% of the world’s population. I would not be surprised if our market share and use of paper products is just as skewed.

So where am I going with this? I hope for everyone’s sake – and I mean “everyone” — as in my generation, future generations, Americans, Chinese, Indians, Iraqis, middle income, rich people, Republicans, Democrats, etc. – that this green movement is for real!

It is possible that $4 gasoline is the cold splash, wake-up call that has been overdue for decades.
Maybe if we use less fossil fuels, gift wrap, toilet paper and stuff in general, we will be just fine? Our noses and backsides will be clean, we will get to Grandmother’s house (as in over the river and through the woods) in tact with clean lungs. Maybe we can still fill our bellies (just enough) with good food and fill our hearts with love and laughter while practicing conservation. In the end, our holidays will be…well…HAPPY!

Please excuse me for my Andy Rooney type pontification. I had originally planned on providing a list of things that we can do to have a greener holiday. But I do not have all the answers, and as a car driving, house-building, stuff-buying consumer, I may be part of the problem instead of the solution. But I am going to think about it this year. We all have different priorities, needs, commute distances and appetites, and to standardize rules of conservation might be unfairly presumptuous. So perhaps I can leave you with this…let’s take a time-out during these crazy economic and ecological times to think about conservation. While we may not share the same faith and celebrate the holidays in the same way, we do share this one planet, and most likely it was given to us by the same Creator.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and best wishes for a prosperous New Year!