Happy Holidays! Here’s Trash.

As the holidays approach—Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving (even if it’s always overlooked)— you start to see the advertisements roll in: “Ultimate Fall Sale!” and “Hot Chocolate Fudge Peppermint Christmas Marshmallow Heaven Limited Edition!” And naturally, out of ”FOMO” and the desperate craving for a quick fix of dopamine, you are going to give in to whatever is being sold.

But here’s an interesting not-so-fun fact for you: Americans produce 25% more waste in between the Thanksgiving and New Years holidays. Piles of Christmas cards from your distant relatives that you see once a month are tossed into the trash within minutes. Disposable wrapping paper ends up either buried in the garage or in the trash, Halloween costumes get worn once and never again, surpluses of food that can’t be consumed, Black Friday, and the list goes on and on. Within seconds, it’s pretty easy to tell why this statistic is so prominent.

Why is all this waste bad? First of all, landfills are not infinite. We will one day run out of landfills and all our trash will overflow, waiting to be relocated elsewhere. We can burn the trash, but the chemicals will be released into the air, causing massive air pollution—especially if you consider how much trash we have. We don’t currently have the technology to just send trash into space; even if we did, we don’t know where the trash goes and we’re already dealing with the problem of too much “space junk”. 

So, the best way to help the environment is to utilize one of the three “R’s”: Reduce. Although it’s fun to participate in the excitement and trends (I can’t say I don’t), it’s important to remember to limit your consumption to start helping the environment… and your wallets. 

What are some ways you can do this? 

On Halloween, try thrifting for some of your costumes. Thrifting has made a massive comeback with modern teenagers as it provides an affordable and sustainable option to find some unique clothes to fit the same unique personalities. Take advantage of this and go visit the nearest Goodwill, support a small, local thrift business, or give the OLu thrift store a try. As long as you make sure to deep clean the clothes, thrifting is a perfect alternative where you can be creative and think outside the box.

Reusing your gift bags is a perfect way to save your money and help the environment. Gift bags and wrapping paper can be so wasteful and is unnecessarily expensive. If you set aside a box and start stuffing all your gift bags and tissue paper, you’ll probably be able to get away with not buying a single gift bag your entire year. 

Send e-cards instead of traditional holiday cards with your family and family dog printed on a boring card. E-cards will save your money and help reduce the waste issue. Plus, it ensures that your lovely face and cute dog won’t end at the bottom of a landfill— soaked in a pond of sewage and chemicals.

Most importantly, restrain yourself from falling for the schemes of big corporations that only see the holidays as a way to make more money and increase sales. You’re going to be okay without that limited-edition christmas water bottle or the limited sale exclusive bedding. I know it’s hard but take some deep breaths and swipe out of Amazon and TikTok shop and really meditate whether you want it or if the little timer they have is just causing unnecessary panic. Once you start seeing the sales as people trying to rob your money, your perception on what you buy shifts drastically. 

Again, I personally can’t say I’m not a victim to seasonal sales and hypnotic decorations that call your name across the aisles of target, but I will do my best this year to reduce the amount of waste I produce along with the amount of material I consume. Save your money, and fight against the greedy businessmen of capitalistic America by reducing, reusing, and recycling.