Searching Through the Holiday Trash

Power to the Peeples is an exclusive Earth911 series written by Bob Peeples, our resident chemical engineer and Program Manager of Earth911’s sister site Beaches911. Bob combines his extensive knowledge of the environment and how things work with an off-the-cuff sense of humor.

_{(Please note: When I speak of the holidays, I am talking about the period between November 27 and January 1. This covers Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, New Year’s Day and any other event you may or may not celebrate.)}

Somewhere between Peanuts character Linus van Pelt and Ebenezer Scrooge sits your humble author.

Linus and that trusty blanket love traditional Christmas spirit

I was eight years old when Linus first appeared on television bemoaning the commercialization of Christmas and aluminum trees painted pink, while Scrooge had apparently given up entirely.

As a child, I shared most of Linus’ beliefs in quasi‑religious beings like Santa and the Easter Bunny (only without carrying the security blanket). But I’ve started noticing more of the holiday commercialization in the 43 years since then:

• Grocery stores start wheeling in the plastic Santa the day they take down their Halloween candy aisle.
• Department stores deck the halls the minute that the back-to-school sales are over.

Our holiday cheer masks some of the environmental impact of the holiday season, or as I like to say, “‘Tis the season for consumption, falalala, and blah, blah, blah.”

The Waste of Holidays Present

Let’s evaluate some of the potential waste created during this five-week period:

• We will purchase more than two billion holiday cards (300,000 trees’ worth)
• We will use 38,000 miles of ribbon
• We will use half of the country’s annual paper production as wrapping paper
• We will cut down 50 million Christmas trees
• We will purchase 40 percent of the annual battery production
• We will spend $480 billion on gifts and related entertainment
• We will use 27 percent more energy than the rest of the year

Recycle e-Ghosts of Holidays Past

The big purchase this year is expected to be personal electronics. We’re talking cell phones, computers and digital TVs. While it’s still legal to throw electronics in the trash in most states, it’s not an environmentally sound practice, because the toxic chemicals (like lead, cadmium and beryllium) can leach into groundwater over time.

Because only about 15 percent of e-waste gets recycled, I felt that this was the year to deviate from the regular holiday environmental messages you hear about trees and paper and close with an e-waste message:

• Ask when purchasing if there is a take-back program
• Donate usable electronics that are no longer needed
• Search Earth911 for electronics recyclers