Go Green in 2014!

By: Catie Tobin, Ocean Advocacy and Education Fellow

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips about how to green your holiday. Here is the eleventh of twelve in COA's 12 Days of Green Giving' series.

This New Year’s, why not consider greening both your New Year’s Eve plans and your resolution?

Photo Credit: Google Images

Throw an environmentally friendly celebration this New Year’s Eve!

Hosting your own party, instead of going out will save you on the carbon emissions (and money) of transportation.  Encourage your guests to carpool to your home and nominate (or volunteer) a designated driver for the evening.  Emailing invitations and using LED lights for decorations are great green party ideas for this holiday season.

Ring in the New Year with some green drinks too! Whether it is with eco-friendly cocktails, such as organic vodka (i.e. Square One Vodka or Modmix), juice from a local orchard, beer from a local brewery, or water from a Britta Filter infused with seasonal fruit, there is a perfect drink for your guests.

Greening Your New Year’s Resolution

Photo Credit: Google Images

The turn of the New Year marks a blank canvas; a time in which someone can make positive changes to their current lifestyle. Common ‘green’ resolutions include losing a few pounds by walking instead of driving, carpooling to events, or riding your bike to the supermarket. Identifying greener resolutions is the easy part, but successfully following through on those resolutions requires true dedication.

What do you need to successfully follow through on your resolution? Drive. Desire. Creativity. Support. So why don’t you support your friends and family this holiday season by providing them the tools to stick with their greener New Year’s resolutions?

Sites such as Groupon offer great opportunities to give the gift that supports greener resolutions. Whether it’s an admission ticket to a national park, eco-friendly adventures like camping or rock climbing, Groupon offers great deals that can be customized to the person you are going green with.

If a resolution involves reducing, reusing and recycling, especially with your holiday décor, then Pinterest is the site for you! Whether you want to create eco-friendly personalized gifts for your friends and family, or learn fun and different ways to recycle items in your own home, Pinterest is a great tool for all you Do It Yourself-ers. 

At Clean Ocean Action, we encourage all of you to think of 2014 as an opportunity to become a better steward to our ocean and to the planet.  Consider greening your New Year’s plans and making simple changes throughout the year to reduce your carbon footprint.  Small changes can add up in a big way!

Company Holiday Celebrations: Party with a Purpose

By: Zach McCue, Citizen Action Coordinator

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the tenth of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

Plymouth Rock Assurance at
Seaside Sunset 2013

Every year, Clean Ocean Action holds our annual fundraiser, the Seaside Sunset.  COA welcomes supporters, volunteers, partners, and of course corporate sponsors to attend the event.  Year after year COA is thrilled to see more companies helping to sponsor the event and turn the night into a team building event.  Most notably, Plymouth Rock Assurance has supported Seaside Sunset the last few years and treated their staff to a night of drinks and dancing to benefit ocean protection. With great food, music, and giveaways, many companies have the chance to support Clean Ocean Action while having a great time out of the office.

Photo Credit: Google Images

Many non-profit or charity organizations have holiday functions that tie a fundraiser to the holiday season.  It may be too late for this year, but for next year think about encouraging your office to have their holiday outing supporting a local charity or non-profit.  Not only will having an office outing at a fundraising event relieve your office manager of the logistics and cost of hosting your own party, it will also set an example of service and giving to employees and their families.  Year after year the relationship between your office and the organization (and your respective staff) will grow, making your annual company outing just like home at the holidays.

Another fun way to create a more environmentally-friendly workplace is to consider greening your company birthday and holiday celebrations.  At Clean Ocean Action, instead of exchanging gifts for staff birthdays or a “Secret Santa” for the holidays, we all contribute a modest amount of money to donate to another nonprofit organization.  Each staff member writes a favorite nonprofit on a slip of paper and we draw the winner from a hat.  COA makes a donation in honor of our 'crew' to that organization.

Whether it’s a cocktail reception, green gift exchange, or open bar with live music, consider a charity fundraiser during holidays to party with a purpose with your company!

Light Up the Holiday Season with Safe, Environmentally Friendly Candles

By: Lindsay McNamara, Communications Coordinator

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the ninth of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

Did you know that some of your household candles may be emitting pollutants and unhealthy fumes?  Typical, paraffin candles, according to a study by the American Chemical Society, are a common and often unrecognized source of indoor pollution.  According to the same study, paraffin candles can also release human carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) if lit every day for years or if frequently lit in an unventilated room.  According to Treehugger.com, this is because paraffin is obtained from petroleum during the refining process.  Paraffin is the last component extracted during that process and asphalt is the second-to-last byproduct.  Treehugger.com claims that lighting a paraffin candle in your room is similar to a burning pile of asphalt in your house and that the soot is similar to emissions released by diesel-burning vehicles, yuck!

Photo Credit: simplethings.ca/

Go a healthier, eco-friendly route by purchasing natural candles made from beeswax or soy.  Take your eco-experience even further and try making your own recycled candles from beeswax or soy.

Materials: Double boiler to melt down your old candles, deep sauce pan and melting pot with a pouring spout (to make double boiler), non-paraffin candles, wicks, pencil, mesh strainer, candle holders (try using recycled mason jars, glass or cups)

Steps:

• Before you put your non-paraffin candles in your melting pot, try to pull the wicks

  

  Photo Credit: fragranceart.com

  out, or cut them off as much as you can, if pulling them all the way out is not possible. Be sure to remove any labels or stickers that may be on the side or bottom of the candle.

• Fill the bottom part of your double boiler with approximately two inches of cool water, and place on the burner.  Set burner to a high temperature. When the water begins to boil, turn the heat down to medium low/low. 

• Place the candles (with no wick or labels/stickers) into the top of double boiler or melting pot and set it over the bottom pot with boiling water.  Be sure not to place the melting pot into the water until it begins to boil.  Be sure to stay and watch the burner during this process!  Be patient; this process can take up to 40 minutes.

• It’s a good idea to prepare the candle holders while you are waiting for the wax to melt. Measure the wick length so that the wick touches the bottom of the holder and stays straight. Lay a pencil across top of holder and tie the wick string around a pencil to help it stay in place.

• Check the wax and stir until any remaining chunks are dissolved.

• Use a mesh strainer and pour the hot wax through it into your candle holder. Using a strainer will help remove any remnants of dirt or burnt wick from the wax (the whole idea is to have eco-friendly and clean candles!).  If you do not have a pan with a spout, use a small ladle. Don’t forget to wear an oven mitt.

• Place the full candle holders on a flat surface out so the wax can harden evenly. Top off candles as needed as the wax settles.

• Once the wax has set, untie the wick string from the pencil and cut to desired length.

If you decide to make your own recycled candles, send COA a picture; we’d love to see your work!  Tweet your photo to us using #12DaysofGreenGiving @CleanOcean or message us on Facebook.

Don’t Rock the Salt!

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the eighth of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

By: Sean Dixon, Coastal Policy Attorney

Picture this (or look outside) – it’s cold, dark, and snowing.  Maybe it is also sleeting, or both.  Now, imagine you have to head out to work, or welcome some friends over for dinner.  The road are icy and your sidewalk treacherous.  What’s your solution? Spread some salt! Call the salt trucks! Melt that ice and say hello to easy driving and safe steps.  Right?

Wrong.

The way rock salt for melting ice works is that the salts themselves reduce the melting point of water – so instead of 32 degrees, water around the salt crystals will melt at a lower temperature (like 25 degrees).  If it’s -20 degrees, well, then you probably don’t want to go out anyways, and your normal rock salt won’t work.  During the summer, in most parts of the urban landscape, over-use of fertilizers can be what leads to significant local water quality problems.  Fertilizers can also be bad for your soil and for your pets.  Rock salt is the winter version of fertilizer, and can cause a host of problems:

First, rock salt is bad for your pets.  

The crystals can get ingested (they stick to paws, fur to be eaten later indoors, or eaten while in the ice and snow) and can lead to burned skin (apparently, the crystals can reach over 150 degrees!).  It’s also bad for other wild animals – in natural ecosystems, salt is a rare commodity and deposits of salt, called “salt licks,” are the coffee shops of the animal world.  Road salt in many places can attract animals to roadways, endangering both the wildlife and drivers.

Second, it can be really bad for drinking water and water quality.  

According to a Stormwater journal article, the New York City watershed (from which all NYC’ers get their tap water), there are “approximately 6,000 mi. of paved roadways in the watersheds, where road-salt application ranges from 37 to 298 tons/lane-mi./yr.”  That’s upwards of 300 tons per mile per lane deposited through the watershed!  The USEPA warns that salt in drinking water can impair water quality to the point where it’s dangerous for aquatic life, corrodes drinking water infrastructure, and endangers human health. 

In 2010, in New Jersey, a Times of Trenton article that “Road salt already has caused problems in some drinking-water supplies in Bergen and Morris counties.  Mahwah stopped using one of its 12 municipal wells years ago because of a high sodium content officials believe came from road salt dumped on Route 17.” According to the article, the state DEP thinks that “up to 60 percent of road salt infiltrates ground water.”

Third, it’s bad for soils.  

In some cases, soils have been tested at double the levels considered too high for normal bacteria functions.  Without healthy bacteria, soils become dirt, dust, and then run off into waters – losses for agriculture, parks, habitat, and downstream water quality.  Salt in soils is also bad for plants – inhibiting long-term growth, causes chlorine toxicity in leaves, and creates micro-drought conditions.

Fourth, it’s really bad for our infrastructure.  

Most people from wintry areas know that salt is bad for your car (corroding the undercarriage), but it’s also really bad for concrete and pavement.  Basically, the way it works is that your melted ice becomes really, really salty water – and that salty water (at the microscopic scale) enters micro-holes in concrete (concrete is full of these mini-holes, called pores).  Once inside the concrete, that salty water re-freezes (usually at night when temperatures drop).  Frozen salt water expands and creates salt particles – both of which are bad for your sidewalk, causing pits and cracks.

According to an August 2010 USEPA factsheet, over 15 million tons of rock salt are spread on our pavement, sidewalks, and parking lots each year.  What’s to be done?

Fortunately, there are a few solutions, though as one blog puts it, “you probably won’t like to hear” the best solution…shovel more!

Ideally, the best solutions are simple: shovel snow off your driveway so that it doesn't melt and freeze into dangerous ice, don’t use rock salt (or any salt), and put boots on your pets if you’re walking on other people’s sidewalks where there is rock salt.  This keeps your pets, your soils, your drinking water, you, and your concrete happy and healthy! 

To avoid slipping, you can use cat litter, sand, or sawdust to coat your icy pavement, or build your walkways out of gravel or rocks – avoiding the problem altogether.

Finally, one amazingly cool (or warm?) solution is also an energy efficiency one: use excess heat from power plants or geothermal heat to melt snow and ice! 

Heated sidewalks and driveways are all the rage in many colder cities and towns. In Holland, Ohio, in 1988, the city’s leaders (with a substantial private donation) converted all of their downtown’s public walkways to heated-sidewalks by piping hot water from the nearby power plant through pipes under the pavement.  The call this the “snowmelt” system, and claim it can melt 1 inch of snow per hour at 15-20 degrees F.  This is hot water that would have to be cooled anyways, so the town gets an added benefit!  Over 120 miles of tubes keep the sidewalks walkable all winter long.  Homes and small businesses can do this too – and can tie it into geothermal systems to use the ground’s natural warmth to keep the surfaces ice-free!

Have an Efficient Holiday Season – Environmentally Speaking!

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the seventh of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

By: Sean Dixon, Coastal Policy Attorney

Want to have a happy holiday? How about saving money (and the planet)? 

We all know that the holiday season can bring a host of environmental impacts – large quantities of plastic (packaging), paper (wrapping), lights (decorating), and food (good-cheering) all add up.  A news report from Vermont tallied up the amount of energy Americans will use for holiday lighting: 6 trillion watt-hours.  That’s apparently enough to power every home in New Hampshire for a month.

We’ll also toss millions of batteries (40% of all batteries sold each year are sold during the holidays), buy 33 million Christmas trees, generate a huge amount of “e-waste” (TVs, smartphones, etc) that have special waste issues, and buy 100 million strands of lights.

Having a more efficient holiday season doesn't necessarily mean having no holiday season; it’s an opportunity to green up your winter.

There are a ton of lists out there for ways to be greener during the holidays – like here and here.  Our Clean Ocean Action favorites include:

1. Combine shopping trips

According to NYSERDA (the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority), one of the least efficient ways to spend your holidays is shuttling back and forth from home on a series of short shopping trips – for food, gifts, party supplies, and Santa beards.  According to the agency, “Several short trips can use twice as much fuel as a longer one that covers the same distance.”   Another related suggestion is to leave the bad holiday vibes at home – NYSERDA warns that “Aggressive driving wastes gas and can lower your mileage by as much as 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent around town.”  That, and aggressive driving probably leads to aggressive shopping, and that rarely ends well.

Also, check out other tips for efficient driving from www.FuelEconomy.gov.

2. Beat the heat

As the Frugal Living blog points out “extra bodies in the house means extra warmth at no cost to you.”  Let your family reduce your energy bills - by turning down the heat before your guests arrive, you can save a ton of money from the heat generated by all those guests (and all the cooking).  Speaking of cooking, every time you peak into the stove to check on how your food is cooking, your oven temp drops – some say by as much as 25 degrees per peak – so trust your timer and keep the oven shut.

Of course, you can always winterize your home by putting up plastic sheets over your windows (window kits available at most stores!). This may sound counter-intuitive, for those looking to reduce plastics you their lives, but window winterization can lean to pretty significant heating and cooling cost savings, and those plastic sheets for your windows are reusable, year after year.

3. Mind the lights

Finally, make the switch to LED lights.  The US Department of Energy estimated the cost of running different strings of light 12 hours a day for 40 days, and the results are stark.  Standard bulb strings with 125 4-watt lights will cost you 45 times more than a string of 280 0.04-watt LED lights.  Why spend $25 on electricity when you can spend $0.50.  

The Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, NYC, has, apparently, somewhere between 30,000 and 45,000 lights on 5 miles of wires.  When NYC Mayor Bloomberg championed the switch to LED lights, he said that people will now “see an example of green leadership which may inspire them to make greener choices in their own lives.” The 2007 switch to LEDs dropped the energy use by more than 50% - down to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day (equal to the amount of electricity consumed by a typical 2,000-square-foot house in a month).

For an extra dose of Holiday cheer, give the gift of efficiency – solar and LED lights make great gifts, as do window winterizing kits.

Hoarder or just crafty? You decide.

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the sixth of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

By:  Diana Reinhardt Paradis, Manager of Development and External Affairs

This time of year, my thoughts turn to times past and cherished memories.  I tend to save many of the decorations, ribbon, and assorted odds and ends from gifts and packaging I receive.  But what to do with the decorations, pretty packaging, and all of those paper products?     

It’s easy to reuse your holiday cards or old wrapping paper as gift tags.  Simply cut your favorite images with pinking shears, trace a scalloped pattern or, if you have one, use a die-cutting machine.  Images of Frosty, Santa and other holiday favorites are perfect for these upcycled gift tags.  Make sure the special message sent to you in the card does not appear on the back of your tag!  To make the backing for your tag, use drinking glasses of various sizes as templates for round, even circles.  Pop a hole in the top with a punch and thread with a ribbon to finish your tag.  


Or, instead of giving away your favorite cards, turn them into treasured holiday ornaments.  By cutting a series of circles, folding and strategically gluing the corners together, you can create a fantastic ornament.  Every year when you decorate your home, it will remind you of the heartfelt messages received from family and friends.  


You can also repurpose the decorations from last year’s festivities to decorate your home now.  I have turned New Year’s Eve party decorations into tree ornaments, saved tiny Santas that arrived on a fruit basket for featured decorations used on the wreath on my front door, and a metal truck I received one year filled with candy now hauls a tiny tree that once decorated a different gift.  An entire winter scene can be created from repurposed objects.  

Wrapping It Up Eco-Style This Holiday Season

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the fifth of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

By: Catie Tobin, COA Ocean Advocacy and Education Fellow

It may seem difficult to keep up your holiday spirit up this season while staying environmentally cautious, especially while wrapping presents, shopping at malls, or sending out your holiday cards, but it’s a good thing that there are quick and easy ways to ‘go green’ this holiday season!

Sites, such as Eco Cycle, Pinterest, and Tree Hugger, give great suggestions on how ‘going green’ this holiday season is affordable, eco-friendly, and easy! The perfect way to start is wrapping  and packing eco-style. Wrapping paper adds a variety of colors to your holiday décor, but why use single-use wrapping paper?

Utilize comics, posters, old calendars (there are only a few more days left in 2013), maps, blueprints, fabrics, or cloth gift bags to wrap this year’s holiday gifts instead. This is a great opportunity to not only be eco-friendly, but to personalize the wrapped gifts for that particular person. You can even make a game out of it on Christmas morning: have your loved ones find their gifts based on which type of wrapping resembles them the most! For example, if you have a cousin who loves to travel, wrap all of their gifts in recycled maps, or an uncle who loves to go boating and fishing, wrap his gifts in recycled fishing nets or pages from a boating magazine. Be creative!

Another great way to be environmentally friendly this holiday season is to bring your own re-usable bags holiday shopping. Clean Ocean Action has a re-usable, recycled bag made from recycled plastic just for you! This is a simple and easy way to avoid using plastic shopping bags and help the environment! 

Choosing holiday cards which can easily be recycled is another useful tool that can help you ‘go green’ this holiday season. While sending e-cards is an environmental solution, they can get lost in people’s inbox and may not seem as personal. If you prefer to send out holiday cards via post office, choose cards without non-paper embellishments like foil or ribbon, and look for cards that contain post-consumer recycled content. Don’t worry, you can still send around a photo with your family rockin’ their holiday-best sweaters, but why not do it in an eco-friendly manner? Sites such as Greener Printer and the Gallery Collection will allow you to do just that. Now go and get the camera ready and say ‘eco-friendly’ as the light flashes!

There are so many ways in which you can be environmentally friendly without lessening your holiday cheer. Start a new tradition this year and watch as these ideas remain a holiday favorite for years to come. 

The Perfect Gift: A (re-)Useful One

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the fourth of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

By: Zach McCue, Citizen Action Coordinator

This holiday season when looking for gifts for friends and family, it can be tough to nail down that perfect sentimental gift.  Sometimes, a gift that is more useful will better suit your friend or loved one. 

As an environmental organization that works to prevent marine debris, Clean Ocean Action (COA) advocates for folks to cut down their use of plastic water bottles or Styrofoam.  Each summer, COA holds Corporate Beach Sweeps where companies from throughout the region come to Sandy Hook to spend a day of service cleaning the beach.  At the end of the program, COA provides lunch and a presentation on ocean protection, including a brief conversation about how everyday decisions may directly affect what is picked up off the beach. 

I often ask for folks to make the connection from their daily plastic water/soda bottles, plastic utensils and single-use packaging, to what was cleared from the beach.  I point out the dangers that single-use plastics pose to marine wildlife and ask them if they really need to get that “medium French Vanilla with cream and two sugars” in a Styrofoam cup.

Photo Credit: Google Images

It’s easy to advocate for environmental responsibility, but it’s a challenge for that message to translate into action.  For the coffee lovers in your life, consider giving them a reusable coffee mug for Christmas.  Using re-usable mugs reduces plastic, paper, and Styrofoam waste, but can also save you money! 

Every morning when your friend or loved one leaves the house with their coffee in hand, or heads to their local coffee shop to refill their cup, they will not only feel better about doing the right thing for the environment, but hopefully they will think of how you helped them understand that being green is easy and fun!

Coffee mugs aren’t the only reusable gifts you can give friends and family.  Reusable water bottles from your favorite sports team or organization, or re-usable bags from your favorite retailer are great ideas too!

Give an Ocean Experience This Holiday SEAson!

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the third of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

By: Mary-Beth Thompson, Clean Ocean Action Operations Director

As a family with three active sons, over the years we have spent much time together having fun in outdoor activities.  Now that the “boys” are adults themselves and our family has expanded to include wonderful wives and fiancées, my favorite thing to do, especially around the holidays, is spend time together. So, this Christmas we have decided to do just that – we all set aside a day and night to do something fun! I would tell you what we will be doing, but Scott and I are saving the surprise for our Christmas gift to the children!

If you are thinking of giving the gift of time with each other, consider giving a gift of an ocean experience! It can even be more meaningful if you offer to share the experience together, such as surfing, fishing, or yoga-on-the-beach lessons. Seasonal passes to a state or federal park are also a great gift, as well as charter boat fishing or eco-tour boat cruises, and SUP and kayak experiences. Many supporters of COA are in these fun businesses, including Aqua Trails in Cape May, Pride Fishing & Tackle Shop in Red Bank, Summa Love Surfing & Yogain Long Branch, and Hackensack Riverkeeper in Secaucus. Top the day off with a gift card to a great seafood restaurant or continue the giving by cooking your own gastronomical delight with fresh seafood purchased at LustyLobster in Highlands.

Whatever your interests are, experiences and spending time together can be the most valuable gift to give or receive! From our family to yours, we wish you Happy Holidays and all the best in 2014!

(Photos by Scott Thompson)

Give the Gift that Keeps on Giving!

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the second of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

By: Catie Tobin, COA Ocean Advocacy and Education Fellow

Tis the season for shopping lists, baking to-dos, and holiday decorating galore. With all of the time needed to complete those tasks, it’s hard to devote time to really thinking about personalized gifts for your family and friends, let alone environmentally-friendly gifts. It’s a good thing that there are websites out there that can help you do just that!

Holiday gifts do not necessarily have to be an article of clothing or an iTunes gift card. Why not give something more meaningful and that can help the environment? Become craftier, especially with your holiday décor, utilize Pinterest as a way to create long-lasting (and greener) decorations! Whether you want to transform your house into a Winter Wonderland or you want to create personalized gifts for your friends and family, then Pinterest is a great tool for all you Do It Yourself-ers. 

Websites, such as ReUseIt, are a great resource to use when holiday shopping. Whether it is a reusable eco hero cape for your environmental superhero or eco-finger paint for your artsy neighbor, gifts for all ages can be found on this environmentally friendly website. Other websites, such as The Daily Green, provide other great opportunities to find ideas for unique green holiday gifts.

Gifts do not necessarily have to be something that the recipient physically receives. Another great option to build a greener future with a greener gift is to donate to an environmental organization in said person’s name. For example, Clean Ocean Action provides great opportunities to give the gift that keeps on giving. A donation to Clean Ocean Action in someone’s name allows us to continue protecting our ocean and build a greener future. Our fellowship and internship programs are funded by donations from people like you. They also go to building our educational programs to help shape the next generation of marine scientists.

A donation to Clean Ocean Action can also give the gift of an ocean education. Make a donation to COA specifically for a Clean Ocean Action presentation for your child’s school or an organization you are a part of. Presentations are available for all age groups and topics include the Clean Ocean Zone, Pointless People Pollution, Liquefied Natural Gas, as well as a general Clean Ocean Action presentation. 

Going ‘green’ this holiday season does not need to be a difficult task. Whether it is decorating in a greener fashion or giving ‘greener’ gifts, there are numerous websites available to help you accomplish all of your environmentally-friendly goals. Start a new trend amongst family and friends by thinking outside the box this holiday SEAson and purchasing greener gifts that will be sure to spread cheer!

O Tannenbaum! Eco-friendly, chic decorations for the SEAson

This season, Clean Ocean Action is offering tips on how to green your holiday. Here is the first of twelve in COA's '12 Days of Green Giving' series.

O Tannenbaum!  Eco-friendly, chic decorations for the SEAson

By: Diana Reinhardt Paradis, Manager of Development and External Affairs

I love the scent of a real Christmas tree.  It makes a home feel ready for the holiday.  But what type of tree is the greenest option?   Should I purchase a natural tree or an artificial tree?  

This bulb tree might live
in your backyard for years.

When shopping for a Christmas tree, there are many factors to consider.  Natural Christmas trees are chopped down (often from Christmas tree farms) and usually shipped long distances, but forever artificial trees can contain plastic and chemicals and are often made overseas and then shipped long distances to your home. 

If you decide on a natural tree for your home, buy locally.  New Jersey is the Garden State!   There are wonderful Jersey-grown trees available.  When the holiday season is over, many towns will pick up your tree and turn it into mulch.  Trees are chipped, mixed with leaves, and recycled into rich compost for parks, institutions, and community gardens. Your tree will be part of the soil when flowers bloom this spring in your town.  Remember to remove all lights, tinsel, ornaments, the tree stand, and plastic from your tree before setting it out at the curb for collection. 

My little reindeer!

If you choose an artificial tree, make sure it becomes a family heirloom used for generations, instead of sending it to a landfill. These days, some artificial trees are sold with built-in LED lights – and LED lights save electricity.  Plus, you avoid the old, “one goes out, they all go out” light string trap!  Some of these newer trees even work by a remote control – no more stooping to ‘turn on the tree’. 

Another option is to purchase a living tree. Find a bulb tree (with the roots wrapped in burlap or other preserving fabric) at your local garden center and decorate it for the season, then plant it outdoors.  Mark a special milestone like a wedding, anniversary or the birth of a child or grandchild, or just start a new tradition.  The most successful way to bring a living tree indoors for the holiday is to keep the tree in a room that isn’t very warm (away from fireplaces and kitchens) and keep the tree well watered.  Bulb trees come in all sizes, and several smaller trees grouped together would make a stunning decoration. 

Modern décor more your style?  Use an unusual material to build your tree, like metal or cardboard.  You can also fit more ornaments on a metal tree than one with branches and can even be used for other events during the year, depending on the style. Cardboard trees can be very chic; check out sites like www.Pinterest.com to be inspired by amazingly creative designs made from recycled cardboard. 

If you want to get really creative, make a tree from up-cycled, weathered wood. It may not be traditional, but it can become your new eco-friendly tradition. Or you can use the trimmings for a special display.  Last year, my husband and I built a reindeer out of the leftover stumps and branches from our live tree – and the results were adorable!  Old buttons were used for the eyes and a washer my husband had laying around made a nose for Rudolph. 

Jack Johnson’s Christmas Tree

This year, I was inspired by an article I read in Coastal Living about musician Jack Johnson’s laid back style of decorating.  A COA supporter, Jack is an active surfer living in Hawaii.  After a storm, he took his family to the beach, and found some wood and debris.

"I think it was pieces of somebody's turquoise plywood deck that had been all beaten up and washed around, so it looked really neat—it was all weather worn, and it was Kim's (Jack’s wife) favorite color, so I turned it into a tree."  The tree is now decorated with other items found on the beach by the Johnson family, which they recycled into ornaments.  You can read more about the Johnson family holiday traditions at www.CoastalLiving.com. 

No matter what you choose for your home this year, you can make it greener with a little time and creativity.