Giants vs. Patriots: Superbowl XLVI (nfl.com)

While the real action is on the field, think of the following as your very own game; the more actions you take, the more points you earn. Enlist your friends to do the same and get a friendly competition going. If we all take some of the actions below, we’re in for a great season where we’re all winners. Go Team Green!

We admit it! Obsessed with SustyParty’s compostable plates and bowls. Order in your team’s colors & toss into the compost without even scraping the food off!

Go Waste Free

Pack your own reusable plates, water bottles, glassware, and utensils: 20 points!

BYO cloth napkins or PeopleTowels: 20 points!

Or use recycled paper napkins and you’ll still get 10 points.

Drink And Eat Sustainably

Fill your (reusable) bowl with organic or at least more natural chips and snacks, snag 10 points.

Drink wisely – celebrate touchdowns with organic and/or local beer (10 points), hydrate with filtered tap water in a reusable bottle (10 points), and stay awake and warm with organic coffee (20 points). You winos want to look for eco-friendly wine (20 points). Jack your score by 10 more points when you recycle the corks — and add a big 50 when you recycle the bottles!

Whew! Is it half time yet? If you’ve done ALL of those actions, you’ve got 180 POINTS already!

More:

Fire up your grill with eco-friendlier briquettes (10 points) and cook up some sustainably raised meat (another whopping 50 points!) and/or organic veggies (50 more!). Who knew eating guacamole could be SO extra-green?

Southwestern Layered Bean Dip: one of a zillion drooly ideas on EatingWell's special Superbowl recipe collection

If you’re a sausage fan, definitely throw some of Applegate Farms’ organic hot dogs (10 points) on the grill. Do you have a solar-powered grill/oven? Our friends Corey and Lynn of Celebrate Green swear by them — they’ve got another 20 points each!

Applegate Farms cheezy bacon organic hotdog: Yes, please!

Clean Consciously

Before you chow down, clean your hands with a natural hand sanitizer or hand soap and score another 10 points.

When the game is over, recycle everything in sight. We already mentioned bottles; beer cans count for another 20 points!

Wipe up spills and degrease the grill with a natural all-purpose cleaner for 10 points, not to mention reduced air pollution.

That’s a total of 360 points! Sounds like a nice round number to us. How’d you do? If you’ve got more ways to Green up Superbowl Sunday, please post them or drop us a line. (Hmmm, maybe Practically Green should give points for suggesting new actions?)

Not everyone can win a fancy Superbowl ring, but we can ALL be Practically Green!

Why not recycle them instead?

(Why not bring reusable shopping bags and stop using these altogether, as many places now require…. Seattle, Long Beach, San Francisco, Washington, Hawaii, New Delhi, Italy, France, China, Tanzania….)

From an illustration by Ben Katchor for "Bags in Trees" in The New Yorker, Jan. 12, 2004

Nearly 1 million bags are used each minute worldwide. Recycling rates of plastic bags hover near 10 percent (only about a third of paper bag recycling). Suffice it to say that we have a long way to go to reduce the number of plastic bags that are thrown in the trash and wind up in our waterways as well as our overstuffed landfills.

In 2010, D.C. businesses began seeing a drastic reduction in bag usage; environmental clean-up groups witnessed fewer bags polluting regional waterways

Unfortunately many curbside recycling programs don’t currently accept plastic bags. If this is the case where you live, seek out a grocery or retail store near you that will accept them for recycling. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to recycle them curbside, make sure your bags are properly secured within the bin. They won’t get recycled if they blow away.

Reduce the amount of plastic bags you need to recycle by not taking them at stores in the first place—use a reusable bag instead. You can even bring reusable produce bags to go inside your shopping bags! Reusing the plastic bags you do have stretches the considerable resources that went into making them.

Our friends at Blue Avocado ease the switch BYO bags, with zippy design & a passion for reducing plastic bag waste.

Check with your town or municipality to see if they recycle plastic bags. If they don’t, ask them to start.

Look online to find a store that accepts plastic bags for recycling near where you live. Double check to see what kind of plastic your bags are; some stores only take back plastic #2 and #4 bags. See if they take produce bags as well as shopping bags.

Keep in mind these guidelines from Waste Management:

Clean plastic bags are accepted in recycling containers at many grocery stores. However:

• Plastic bags are a major cause of litter and waste. It is much better to use a durable shopping bag.

• Plastic bags cause litter, slow sorting and jam machinery at recycling centers. Empty recyclables out of bags and boxes, and put them loose in recycling containers so that they can be easily identified and sorted.

From SimpleHuman: Mount this slim profile storage bin in pantry, under sink, or on wall to keep plastic bags organized & at the ready.

Earth911 makes it super easy to find a plastic-bag recycling drop-off.

At Earth911, choose an item, type your ZIP code...

… and presto! You get info on where to go and how to get there.

Or visit PlasticBagRecycling.org.

We’re not the only ones who see bags in trees everywhere; check out Beth Terry’s blog My Plastic-Free Life, or Windy, the story of the plastic bag caught in a Pennsylvania tree in 2008 (and disappeared during the freak snowstorm of October 2011).

• The New York Times: Taking Aim At All Those Plastic Bags
• YouTube: The Dangers Of Plastic–Interview With Charles Moore
• YouTube: The Plastic Bag–A Mockumentary
• Rodale.com: You Pay $88 A Year For Free Plastic Bags
• Rodale.com: 8 Ways To Reuse Plastic Bags (Until They’re Banned)

We’re guessing the Navy Shower was invented before the Navy was coed, with long-haired sailors who require conditioning treatments and enjoy complex exfoliating regimens. But even the spazillas among us don’t have to take a long involved shower every single time. And, when you read the description of a Navy shower, you’ll see that the point is to keep the water running only when you actually NEED it to be running. Excellent products help… such as Weleda’s Sea Buckthorn Creamy Body Wash, a current favorite (see photo).

The Clean Beauty Blog asks, "Every wondered what it was like to shower in freshly squeezed orange juice?" Exactly....

Taking shorter showers is an easy way to significantly reduce your water usage. The average shower length in America is approximately eight minutes. According to the EPA, standard pre 1992 showerheads use over five gallons of water per minute, while standard post 1992 showerheads and low flow showerheads average one and a half to two and a half gallons per minute. You know both how long you shower and your showerhead, so do math. Multiply it by one year. Wow, right?

Taking a Navy shower is no problem in the French West Indies... sigh. (Credit: Julie Warburton Design)

Navy showers (used on ships to preserve precious water) are a manual way to achieve low-flow showerhead savings without changing a fixture—a great option for the unhandy or for renters.

Using less water bathing allows more to stay in the ground or in a reservoir, which in turn helps maintain a natural H20 balance and saves some for future use. There are many parts of the country that do not have enough water to support the current population and levels of water usage. Even if you live in a place with ample rain, there may be a drought. At least 36 states expect shortages in the next five years.

Taking shorter showers will also save you money on water, heating, and sewer bills.

Hop in the shower, get wet all over. Turn off the shower, lather up. Turn it back on, rinse off. You’re done.

Navy showers are least painful in warm climates. For those who brave them in cold climates, at least they save hot water.

• Treehugger.com: Navy Showers–Water Saving Goes Hardcore
• PracticallyGreen.com: Conservation, Preservation, And Stewardship
• U.S. Geological Survey: Water Science Questionnaire–Water Use At Home
• Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense Program

Credit: Slate.com

Sometimes it seems easier to sit in that car with the motor on. But the next time you’re tempted to idle, keep this action in mind. That’s all we ask: avoid idling. Not: don’t idle your car under any circumstances! Simply think twice about it, even if you don’t own a car but use one sometimes. Even if you ride in a taxi or an airport shuttle occasionally—and, for example, you notice the driver has the engine running in seasonable weather, with his window open. This way, you’re informed. And you can add 20 points to your score!

Of course, if you have an electric car you can idle all you want. Right?

No gas: no fumes! Volvo XC60 Plug-in Hybrid Concept

Idling is a common—and unfortunate—practice among drivers, although there is little evidence that it has any benefit. Some people claim that idling in the winter is good for warming up your vehicle, but gently driving your vehicle will warm up it up much faster than letting it idle.

Others claim that it takes more fuel to start your vehicle than to let it idle for a minute. This is a myth; according to the Department of Energy, the fuel used to start your vehicle is equivalent to amount of fuel your vehicle uses when it idles for a few seconds. When your vehicle idles, it gets zero miles per gallon.

Idling also pollutes. There are schools that have adopted idle-free zones for dropping-off or picking-up kids so they won’t be inhaling that much exhaust—both inside and outside idling vehicles.

Did you know that children breathe in twice as much air for their body weight as adults? Here's a sign that's available from the Portland (Oregon) department of transportation.

In London, a new campaign urges drivers to 'make a small switch' to help deliver cleaner, healthier air... see www.tfl.gov.uk

Reduce unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions by turning off your car if you’re going to be stopped for more than ten seconds.

During winter, try idling for ten seconds, then start gently driving to your destination.

Consider asking your school or local business district to adopt an idle-free zone.

• California Energy Commission: Idling Your Car
• SierraClub.org: Green Your Driving Habits–Don’t Idle
• Portland Bureau Of Transportation: Please Don’t Idle Near School
• FuelEconomy.gov: Many Factors Affect MPG

The Frugalista badge rewards you for taking actions that save money while promoting a healthy green life. Some are beyond easy and others require an up front investment, but all will save you money in the long term.

Today’s action: Switch to cloth napkins at home regularly. Frankly this couldn’t be easier. We’re invetrate cloth napkin users and we’ve peppered this post with great suggestions on how to embrace cloth napkins at your house. You could use a favorite old shirt (clean!) as a napkin. More ideas—including why it’s worth the bother—right here:

Using cloth napkins that you wash and reuse instead of paper napkins that you use once and throw away saves natural resources (trees!) and helps minimize the amount of garbage you contribute to landfills. Science backs up this common sense choice: in a life-cycle assessment (this is a technique for assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts of a product or process) of cloth versus paper napkins, Treehugger’s Pablo Paster declared cloth the winner with about ½ the total impact.

Set of 6 linen napkins with a different gentle admonishment on each... irresistible! From Etsy.

May we suggest: "No texting at the table"?

The same assessment found linen to be more eco-friendly than cotton, in terms of both energy and water used. Any way you look at it, reusable napkins beat paper hands down. If the cloth napkins happen to be linen, vintage, or organic cotton, so much the better. Bonus: cloth makes for a prettier table.

Would you like to have a handy napkin for picnics & take-out? Try PeopleTowels! Choose from dozens of fab designs on derrière-soft organic cotton.

Prowl eBay if your Grammy didn't give you elegant linen napkins.... these transform your table, easy to launder when you line dry!

Pull out those cloth napkins that sit in a drawer waiting for special occasions and put them to use every day. Don’t have any? Stock up. You may need more napkins than you think if you use them regularly.

PG Tip: Assign everyone in the family their own very special napkin ring.... that way they keep track of their cloth napkin all week long!

To use the least amount of cloth napkins as well as laundry, assign each family member a napkin ring. That way you will know whose is whose. Have everyone hold onto his or her napkin until it truly needs a wash or to the end of the week.

Wash napkins in cold water with other clothes so the load is full.

• Planet Green: Choose Cloth Napkins Over Disposables
• Treehugger: Are Paper Napkins More Environmentally Friendly?
• PracticallyGreen.com: Top Green Action, Just In Time For Earth Day: Switch To Cloth Napkins!

Why is Eating a Vegetarian Diet worth a whopping 200 points on Practically Green?

Why is this a super-score action, as impactful as Sell a car and don’t replace it and Buy a pre-owned home instead of building new? Eating your veggies is good for your innards, and it’s usually great for your wallet―you know this already―unless your idea of veggies is truffles (see photo please) and Gianduja at Le Bernadin. Here’s why it’s also a top action for Sustainability.

A favorite veggy recipe: White Truffle Grilled Cheese (you only need a drop of truffle oil!); TY Food52 & KarmaCucina

Remember, you’re in charge! You can ease away from your juicy sirloin habit just one day a week, or decide to eat meat only on weekends.

Mark Bittman: "In the USA we eat almost 10 billion chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys each year. And that’s just us! That kind of settled it.... with the Food Matters Cookbook I’ve proven to myself (and hopefully to all who cook from it) that {it} doesn’t feel like a sacrifice & leads to incredibly inventive, delicious food.

A vegetarian diet is an environmentally friendly one. The conventional production of meat–from feed to slaughter to transport—is energy intensive. By not eating meat, you basically eliminate that entire footprint from your personal consumption.

Not all cows are for eating... these Brown Swiss beauties at Shelburne Farms help make award-winning cheddar

The global demand for meat has risen dramatically in the past few decades, leading to an increase in factory farms. The average family of four consumes between 500 to 800 pounds of meat yearly. This kind of mass production consumes enormous amounts of energy, pollutes the air and waterways, and requires increasing amounts of corn, soy, and other grains—often genetically modified and intensively sprayed with pesticides. This has led to the destruction of vast plots of the world’s tropical rain forests. There are many studies comparing vegetarian and meat-based diets. One often quoted stat: a meal of fruits, vegetables, and grains generates 24 times less greenhouse gas emissions than 6 ounces of conventionally raised beef.

Get inspired with tasty veggy recipes at EatingWell.com, like Elise's Sesame Noodles!

If you’re eating conventionally produced dairy, you’re still involved with the factory farm system. Dairy from local, pastured animals—preferably organic–will have a lighter footprint.

The health benefits of being vegetarian depend largely on what you eat–processed packaged foods don’t have the same nutrients as whole foods. There has been some concern about the health effects of highly processed soy. Also, for people interested in eating local foods, soy might not be grown locally.

There is no single type of vegetarian. A classic vegetarian avoids eating animals, even fish, but there are certainly vegetarians who maintain a bacon or a chicken exception.

• Scientific American: How Meat Contributes to Global Warming
• Greenbiz.com: A Meat Eater’s Guide for Easing Climate Change Impacts
• The Guardian: Eat Less Meat/Dairy Diet?
• Practically Green: Vegetarian Cooking And Eating–Try The Weekday Veg Plan With Spring Pesto
• ADA Journal: Production Of Red Meat Should Be Curbed In Order To Conserve Natural Resources
• Bookmark This Site: HappyCow.net
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Effects Of Soy On Health Outcomes

The eagerly awaited update on this classic has easy-to-read tables, figures, menus & food guides to help you determine how to meet your daily nutritional requirements. The book also suggests what plant-based dietary components and factors play active roles in both prevention & treatment of chronic illnesses.

Sometimes it’s handy to buy a bottle of water, especially if you’re traveling, especially if drinking water is sketchy. We know. But for most of the time, it makes sense to establish another routine: Replace bottled water with filtered water. Once you read this explanation, you’ll probably agree.

Water bottle with built-in filter, from Brita

By switching to filtered water or just plain tap water, you can save significant amounts of money, natural resources, and avoid a huge source of waste. Americans drink 21 gallons of bottled water per capita per year and it’s not a cheap habit. Water costs 240 to 10,000 times more than tap water.

In terms of resources, supplying Americans with plastic water bottles for one year consumes more than 47 million gallons of oil. That’s enough to take 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, according to the Container Recycling Institute. And only ~30% of water bottles are recycled.

Bottled water is not necessarily safer than your tap water. Municipal tap water is tested much more rigorously than bottled water. An investigation of 10 brands by the Environmental Working Group found that several ranked the same as municipal tap water, and several were worse. Unless you have a special health concern, tap water is likely to be just as safe.

Want one in every color! Each pitcher holds 10 8 oz units of filterable H2O. Perfect for home, office, or dorm. Brita Grand

If you like the taste of your town water, then get a few jugs and cool it in the refrigerator.

Posh Chez Panisse restaurant serves filtered tap water & house-aerated sparkling water in lieu of bottled water...You can too! Use repurposed clear wine bottles (soak off label) as water carafes; just fill w/ cold water. (Thank you, Remodelista)

PUR 3-stage faucet mount

If you want to filter it for taste or to get out an impurities, decide whether you want to go with a filtered pitcher or add a filter to the faucet or system.

Pur Stage 3 Faucet Filter

Brita Aqualux

Brita Faucet Filtration

Multi-Pure Stainless Steel Countertop Water Filter

Multi-Pure: This stainless-steel model sits on counter next to the sink & is connected to your existing faucet. Filter life: 750 gallons.

Grohe's WaterCare program recommends 4-minute showers! So 5 minutes is LONG!

Taking shorter showers is an easy way to significantly reduce your water usage. The average shower length in America is approximately eight minutes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, standard pre 1992 showerheads use over five gallons of water per minute, while standard post 1992 showerheads and low flow showerheads average one and a half to two and a half gallons per minute.

By cutting your shower time to five minutes, you’ll effectively save five to fifteen gallons per shower. This can add up to thousands of gallons saved per year for just one person. Get the whole family involved and you’re like a team of water warriors.

PG Tip: Organic Cotton Spa Robe like these ones from Pottery Barn will help you shorten your shower time!

Efficient water use allows more to remain in the ground or in a reservoir, which in turn helps maintain a healthier ecosystem by supporting wildlife and preserving H20 for future use. Even if you live in a place where it rains a lot, there may be a drought. At least 36 states expect shortages in the next five years.

Taking shorter showers will also save you money on water, heating, and sewer bills.

Cuddledown has organic cotton Turkish towels: reward for your shorter showers!

Keep track of your shower time. Set your watch alarm, use a kitchen timer, listen to two songs on the radio, or install a shower timer. Up the ante by turning the shower off while you shave, shampoo, or soap up.

FloWise® showerhead from American Standard

Some devices automatically shut off the water after five minutes and won’t allow it back on for a set period of time. No cheating allowed.

To save more H20, don’t shower daily if you don’t need to.

Free shower app: Set your time, choose a wake-up or chill-out song, and presto!

Unilever Shower Ballad Unilever’s clever–and free–tool helps keep showers short. Visit their Facebook page, select your target shower time and music preference–wake up or chill out–and they’ll find your song. Press play and “sing yourself to a greener clean” until the music stops and time is up.

Five Minute Shower Timer This shower timer keeps it simple–and battery-free! Simply stick it to the wall, flip the hour glass, and when the all the sand slips through, your five minutes are up. Word is though that the suction function is not that reliable, so you might need to get crafty.

Water Droplet Shower Timer This digital shower timer is battery operated and beeps when your set time is up. The manufacturer says the strong suction cup will hold fast to any non-porous surface in your bathroom even the shower since it is steam and water proof.

Ripple: Tested by active kids to withstand everyday usage. Choose from Yellow Duck, Green House, Blue Star or Happy Turtle.

Ripple Water Saving Timers Get the kids in on the short shower wave with these fun, practical shower times. The water proof digital shower timer sticks to the wall and displays a real time clock with an easy-to-program count down timer that beeps when shower time is up.

Envirosax 4 Minute Timer Keep it simple with this basic hourglass timer–sands take four minutes to run their course, so your shower should follow suit. Bonus! With any Graphic Series Pouch, Envirosax will throw in a free timer to help encourage households to conserve water and energy.

Envirosax is a line of chic reusable shopping bags. When you order from the Graphic Series, founders Belinda & Mark David-Tooze will send you this free timer!

Nuts for Blue Avocado... order via Practically Green!

We all use reusable bags daily—purses, computer bags, backpacks. But when it comes to shopping bags, we collectively reach for paper and plastic. According to the Worldwatch Institute, Americans throw away some 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags a year—an unfathomable number.

Polyethylene is produced largely from natural gas. Technically plastic bags are reusable and recyclable, but only a small percentage of them are recycled—Environment California estimates five percent, while the EPA says its closer to twelve percent. Either way, a plastic bag in a landfill takes about 1,000 years to break down, according to multiple sources. And a study by the Ocean Conservancy found plastic bags made up about nine percent of the debris along various U.S. coasts.

Not surprisingly, plastic bag taxes and bans are popping up all over the world as well as stateside; they’re currently banned in San Francisco. Why wait to figure out what rules your town is going to implement? You can reduce your personal use of plastic and paper instantly by switching to a reusable shopping bag today.

L.L. Bean is the King of Canvas bags

The trick to reusable bags is remembering to bring them with you. Set yourself up for success by stashing them in car trunks, purses, and jacket pockets.

Canvas versions are best for heavy hauls. For regular errand runs and groceries, bags made from recycled bottles stand up to most loads.

While there are tons of cute reusable bags on the market, don’t overdo it. Any bag takes energy and resources to make.

No matter what you’re celebrating, you can kiss goodbye the cheezy paper party supplies. SustyParty has amazing hand-stamped and colorful compostable plates and cups, just in time for your year-end bashes.

Every once in a while, reusable plates are truly not an option. Unless you have a lot of like-minded guests who would be happy to BYO table settings (a rare but fantastic group of people!), the next best option is to look for party goods made of recycled plastics or bio-based materials. Choosing either minimizes waste as well as the consumption of fossil fuels, a non-renewable resource.

Compostable hand-stamped star cup made of sugarcane bagasse

Heart cups “These babies are also tough: microwave, freeze or put boiling liquid on 'em”

Jessica Doubilet and Emily Holsey met each other at a party (where else) in New York, and they’ve teamed up on a terrific inventory of cool party products that won’t add stress to groaning landfills.

“We wanted to bring FUN to sustainability.”

Plates are compostable & recyclable. Colored w/ natural dyes. Made of tapioca, potato, and grass.

At the end of the day, we ask ourselves: Will this product be good for the environment, the people who made it, and the people who will use it? We also screen our products for these specific standards.

Organic party crown is machine washable, comes w/ a pack of attachable felt shapes: critters (see fish in photo), flowers and numbers 0-9. Update age year after year!

All products must meet at least three of these attributes: renewable (made from a renewable resource); compostable (it biodegrades in 180 days); recycled (made from mostly recycled content); regulated (3rd party verifications and certifications such as Fair Trade or B Corp or Cradle to Cradle); green energy (produced by green energy); made in the USA; durable; non-toxic; artisanal producer.

Shop by color, theme, category, or material

Picture one of these non-toxic, biodegradable straws in your next peach rum colada!

Watch for an expanded product line in 2012 (hint: wedding) and check out their blog for updates; join SustyParty on Facebookand follow them @sustyparty.

P.S. Don’t forget to recycle the corks!

And click here for a quick reminder of 11 sustainable party tips:

Perfect timing: just when we were beginning to obsess about all the egregious waste and outright landfill tossing that happens at this time of the year, along comes Robin Freedman with her tips on Waste Management for the Holidays:

Robin Freedman

“If each of us took a few small steps to reduce the waste we produce or increase the amount of materials we recycle during the holidays, we’d save a large amount of materials, energy and landfill space. There’s tons of ways to cut back on waste at this time of the year, or in any season!”

Robin works for Waste Management, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. It’s the largest “environmental services provider” in North America, so they know a thing or two about trash. WM looks at waste as a resource, focuses on how to turn around materials in the waste stream, and finds ingenious ways to repurpose waste – into new materials, as energy, and via conversion technologies. Here are her ideas for bringing waste management to your life, with links to Practically Green so you can watch these actions contribute to your score.

1) Composting can reduce the amount of organic waste produced in the home. Holiday meal preparation can generate a large amount of potato peels, fruit rinds, coffee grinds, other vegetable waste and eggshells, that can all be composted. A new compost bin filled with homemade treats can make a great gift for those looking to take recycling to the next level.

2) If you have a fresh tree, garland or wreaths, be sure to recycle them when the holidays are over. Check Earth911’s Christmas tree recycling center for local tree collection and recycling opportunities.

3) If getting your holiday decorations out of storage makes you ask yourself where you’ll find space to put them away in January, maybe it is time to clean out the attic or basement. Before you throw things away, consider whether an item still has a service life and is acceptable for donation to an organization such as the local Value Village or Goodwill Services.

4) Thousands of paper and plastic shopping bags end up in landfills every year. Reduce the number of bags thrown out by bringing reusable cloth bags for holiday gift shopping. Tell store clerks you don’t need a bag for small or oversized purchases.

5) When packaging gifts, consider reduced or no-waste wrapping options. Put a reusable bow on the gift; place the gift in a reusable bag such as a backpack or purse; or package small, themed gifts in a larger item – such as plates or tableware in placemats or a tablecloth or kitchen utensils in an apron or decorative dishtowel. Also, you can use last year’s wrapping as packaging material.

6) Make your own wrapping paper by using old maps, posters or pages from the newspaper or magazines. Recycled-content wrapping paper is also available.  Save bags and bows to use again and be sure to recycle the newspapers or brown paper shopping bags after the gift is opened, or use it for padding when shipping gifts.

7) Consider giving no-waste gifts, such as music or sports lessons, memberships to a gym, the philharmonic or a museum, favors like babysitting or tickets to a sporting event or concert.  Find out the gift recipient’s favorite charity and make a donation in his or her honor, or commit to volunteering with that organization.

With a little imagination and commitment, we can use this holiday season to create new traditions that help preserve the environment. For more information about Waste Management’s comprehensive list of recycling services, visit www.thinkgreenfromhome.com.

Truck picks up the Bagster, literally!

P.S. if you’re still looking for a very special gift for that certain someone, consider a Bagster – WM’s Dumpster in a Bag! It’s a 4’ x 2’ x 8’ collection bag, perfect for the DIY guy or gal on your list. Why’s it green? It takes the place of a metal dumpster, which has to be fetched off your premises one at a time; a truck can haul off 12 Bagsters in a single trip for proper disposal. Find out more at Bagster’s thriving Facebook page.

As in, I really love you enough to stop texting and actually make you something? Even if I’m not a world-class artist?

Solution! Make a homemade card instead of buying a new one

String of lights is sewn across these cards; each light is cut from a magazine. Found on Etsy.com

Who doesn’t love receiving a homemade card? Not only do they really show someone you care, but also making cards by reusing paper and materials you already have around the house reduces the consumption of natural resources. You’ll save money, too.

Cookie cutter cards seen on MarthaStewart.com

While there are eco-friendlier greeting cards on the market, making them involves manufacturing emissions as well as the impact of transporting the cards from factories to stores—even if they’re printed with the best possible ink on 100 percent recycled-content and/or FSC-certified paper. DIY cards made from recycled scraps have a much lower footprint. By some estimates, not sending 50 cards a year (holidays plus birthdays add up!) saves five pounds of waste and 1,000 pounds of emissions.

These Holiday Santa cards at Etsy.com are made of upcycled napkins

Get creative. If you’re not, never fear, there is plenty of inspiration to be had online. The only thing to avoid is buying new materials to make your cards. That defeats the purpose!

Try taking paper you’ve only used on one side and decorating over the printed part. Use that stash of old greeting cards you might already have lying around. The recycling bin is a great source for images, letters, and photographs—from magazines, catalogs, kids’ drawings, and newspapers. Cut and paste these onto your card.

Special scissors create cute mini cards on Etsy.com

Buttons, beads, glitter, and more give any card pizzazz. Or head to the yard for leaves, flowers, and feathers.

If you’re an artist—or live with a young budding one—drawing and painting pictures and designs is always nice, especially with eco-friendly paint.

Here are a few of our Useful Links – for the full list, click to the PG action page!

eHow.com: Homemade Card Ideas

Making-Handmade-Cards.com: Card Making Ideas

Treehugger.com: Does Green Greeting Cards Mean E-Greeting Cards?

Do you have a product or link to recommend? (Wink wink to @EcoKaren of EcoEtsy… ) Please do!

Balsam Hill artificial tree

Are artificial trees greener because they’re used year after year? Or do fake trees use harmful elements in their manufacturing process?

This tree from Balsam Hill looks so real, right? Choose Aspen Estate Fir with faux wooden trunk, Colorado Mountain Spruce, or from a dozen other choices; decide height 6 – 30 feet tall, prestrung with LED twinklers. In cramped space? Consider the flatback model. Even order branch samples if you like! We can appreciate their no-shed, low-maintenance practicality on a TV set — but what’s the admire the True Needle ™ foliage, but what are they actually made of? Plastic? What type? Recycled plastic? (There’s no info on site, and the customer service number was busy when we called….)

Flatback tree saves space

Is it greenest of all to purchase a potted tree that can be planted after the holidays? Practically Green says Yes! Use a live Christmas tree. Treehugger.com’s Ask Pablo columnist tackled this conundrum:

…from a carbon emissions standpoint, a live tree cut from a tree farm (where it is replaced), and then composted was greener than a fake tree. That said, he contended that if you hike out into the woods and cut a tree yearly and do not replace it, then the fake tree is the way to go.

The greenest Christmas tree is actually a third option: a potted living tree you plant outside after the festivities. It will continuously absorb carbon long after it’s holiday decorations are removed. And it requires none of the resources used to manufacture and then ship an artificial tree. It’s also a lot better looking.

A potted tree that can happily grow for decades is ideal, but we realize this is not a practical solution for everyone.

Size: A live tree is heavier than a cut one, because of the root system, and the tree portion is likely to be smaller than you might expect. The folks at Rockefeller Center would have a terrible time finding a large-enough pot for their tree, which is 74 feet tall this year. Transporting immense trees from their native forests to their December habitat is a mindboggling carbon-footprint calculation; imagine adding a massive root ball to the equation?

Xmas tree at Rockefeller Center, a 74-foot-tall Norway spruce decorated with 5 miles of lights (30,000 LED bulbs) & will be turned into lumber for Habitat for Humanity after the holidays.

Our 2010 tree grew 8" taller in one year

Planning ahead. Planting a live tree after the holidays is one good solution, but it requires planning: you have to prepare a hole in your yard (if you live north, dig in advance of frost) or arrange to donate the live tree to a park or school nearby that wants it. Call city hall to find out.

Timing. You can’t bring a live potted evergreen indoors for more than a few days before it begins to suffer from the raised temperatures.

What to do with your cut tree after Christmas has come and gone? Some alternatives:

Mulch. Many towns and cities offer a free mulch program for spent trees, and some even pick up the trees curbside.  At Dunbar Cave State Park in Tennessee, about 1,000 recycled Christmas Trees get mulched for use on hiking trails every year.

Power. Residents of Burlington, Vermont, can drop off their trees to be chipped and burned to generate electricity for area power companies.

Dunes. Other municipalities organize projects to use trees for erosion protection. We’ve heard of these efforts in Louisiana, Alabama, the New Jersey shore. The Rockefeller tree is destined to be used as lumber for Habitat for Humanity.

Some 20,000 trees help create a stretch of dunes, 4-9 feet high, along the mile-long oceanfront in Bradley Beach, NJ

Habitat. The Heron Rookery at Baker’s Lake reuses Christmas Trees as nesting materials.

Illinois: Telephone poles, Christmas trees & 1,300 birds. Photo, Robert Sliwinski

Here’s a state-by-state directory of tree-recycling alternatives.

****   Season’s Greetings to one and all!   ****

Full page, 4-color gift wrap: delightful!

Here’s how it looked once I cut it out of the newspaper:

And after wrapping a present!

A decent ribbon helps...

This got me thinking about all the other ways to Wrap a gift using used wrapping paper, boxes, bows, ribbons.

• Snip up a discarded piece of clothing (clean, of course). I’ve found this is an extra-special surprise when the recipient used to wear the item him or herself! The example below was saved from last year – complete with one end still taped in place.
• Leaf through magazines and catalogues destined for the recycle bin or (gasp) the landfill. Our top publishers and ad agencies spend a fortune to make these glossy photos look great; why on earth not use them to wrap presents? (In photo, the two packages next to the small blue box w/ green tie.)
• If you’ve remodeled lately, or if you have an architect nearby, you’ve got access to fascinating white-and-black wrapping paper. Use a bright ribbon to tart it up. (Example below has fresh springs in the bow knot.)
• Maps and nautical charts.
• Paper shopping bags with cool designs.
• Tissue paper from your (we hope eco-friendly) dry-cleaner.

Front, L to R: hubby's shirt, nytimes.com magazine, WSJ; Rear, L to R: recycled building plans, blue box from UncommonGoods, Vanity Fair mag

How’s that for a start? (Don’t tell me you’re already done with your kris kringling!) And what are your eco-gift wrapping tips?

If you send out holiday cards, or if you think you really should—and if you haven’t gotten around to it yet, consider this:

Greeting cards aren’t large, but their impact is. A quote from the book Green Christmas puts this fact into perspective, “According to Hallmark, the 1.9 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the United States could fill a football field ten stories high and consume 300,000 trees.”

E-cards to the rescue! Sending an electronic card for any holiday reduces the number of trees cut down, avoids the unsafe chemicals involved in processing and printing on paper, eliminates the transportation of getting cards from printing plants to stores, and keeps unrecycled cards out of landfills. By some estimates, not sending 50 cards a year (holidays plus birthdays add up!) saves five pounds of waste and 1,000 pounds of emissions.

That factoid is from this Practically Green action:

Send e-cards for holiday

It’s worth a total of 15 points for impact in the Energy and Water categories … one of the 542 actionable and manageable positive next steps you can take in your life starting right now today. Only 1% of Practically Green’s community has already checked it off… be part of boosting that percentage during the next few weeks!

Smilebox lets you add music and video to e-cards

Check out a bunch of other great other ideas for greening your holiday:

A peek at the Holiday Eco Actions on Practically Green

Rebecca Sama, Practically Green's Products Specialist

Our products team just added three new e-card recommendations, submitted by you the Practically Green community and vetted by to be sure they meet our Product Guidelines.

Two of the World Wildlife Fund's free animated e-cards

Have a look!

Choose from the pingg vault.. or upload your own designs!

From the cocodot collection

You can't go wrong with PaperlessPost, and we love the animated envelope opener....

Now two of our favorite and longtime deeply green friends have also blogged about Patagonia’s stunner message, and we wanted to capture them for you.

Wendy Gordon

First, from Wendy Gordon’s piece in The Huffington Post: “How I Spent my Black Friday Selling, not Buying, Patagonia Fleeces on eBay”:

….my plan this year for Black Friday was to sit out the retail game altogether. That was before I saw the ad… ”Don’t Buy This Jacket.” … It went on to encourage readers not to buy what they didn’t need and to sell their used Patagonia products on eBay…. So while I had promised myself I wouldn’t buy anything other than a quart of milk (we’d run out) on Black Friday, I made the transition effortlessly into über-cyber-saleswoman, posting every one of the fleeces my 20-something sons had outgrown on the retail site, along with all those shirts they’d really never liked in the first place.

Oh, it felt good. So good, in fact, that I ended up cleaning out three whole closets. What I couldn’t sell through the Patagonia initiative, I bundled up for the nearby thrift shop.

**************

Jeffrey Hollender

And, from Jeffrey Hollender’s blog, “Don’t Buy This: The Truth About Sustainability”:

Having not broken my obsession with the print version of The New York Times, I was thrilled to greet Black Friday by opening to a full-page ad from Patagonia that urged readers “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”

To the best of my knowledge, Patagonia has never purchased a full-page ad in the Times, and for this, the first time that they did, they are urging consumers to buy less stuff. This exhibits both true leadership and untarnished truth about what it means to be sustainable.

The copy reads: Don’t buy what you don’t need. Think twice before you buy anything.

Click here for Jeff’s complete post.

PGer Nick Rockwell (that IS a Patagonia vest?)

Thanks again to Chelsea stringer and Patagonia enthusiast Nick Rockwell, who told us about the ad before anyone else had mentioned it, and who caught a Cyber-Monday sequel in his email:

When we heard that one of the largest corporations in the world named all of its employees Head of Sustainability, we had to find out more. We spoke with Emma Peacock of Unilever Australasia, and she explained what’s going on down under:

Emma Peacock, Corporate Affairs, Australia & New Zealand, Unilever

Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan is an ambitious set of targets, ongoing globally. Here in Australia and New Zealand, we wanted to define our story and our contribution to the Unilever plan. The plan is a clear vision, and we wanted to put ourselves out there. We needed to unveil the Australia/New Zealand roadmap, and we wanted to do it in a way that would be noticed, and get people on board. It’s such an important part of our business, it’s truly part of everybody’s job! We frankly can’t do it unless everyone is involved. People in finance, people on the factory floor, in nutrition, in product development, all across the company. Everyone plays a role. So we decided that everybody is Head of Sustainability! We printed up 5 business cards for each of the 1800 employees – some of them had never had a business card before! It’s not a whole stack, it’s just 5, to show symbolically that You have a new exciting role.

1,800 employees are the Head of Sustainability, complete with business cards!

We gave everyone a new job manual, a fun piece, saying Here’s why YOU have been selected as Head of Sustainability. It’s really the only way we can achieve the growth we envision over the next ten, twenty, thirty years.

Head of Sustainability job manual delivered to every work station

We made posters featuring 6 different employees and put them up overnight. Each one describes the role of that employee in making a sustainable idea or change happen and why they are therefore the ‘Head of Sustainability.’ This goes with our “small actions, big difference” theme. People do simple things at home, at work here, and as part of a team — it might not feel like a big deal, but they all add up and can have massive impact…. We developed this campaign with the help of an agency Republic of Everyone. Clever people.

Mareana, Production Operator & Head of Sustainability

We’re guessing that other teams at Unilever will come up with fabulous ideas as well, and we look forward to hearing all about them — and being inspired by them! In fact, we’ve already noticed a handy Unilever sing-along shower app on Unilever’s Facebook page, which supports Practically Green’s shorter-shower actions. The app lets you choose length of shower to be timed (2 to 7 minutes) and choose from music that Wakes me up or Chills me out.

We call them UniCLEVER. Be part of it on Twitter with hashtag #SustLiving.

Shorter Shower Ballad app

The environmental cost of everything we make is astonishing. Consider the R2 Jacket shown, one of our best sellers. To make it required 135 liters of water, enough to meet the daily needs (three glasses a day) of 45 people. Its journey from its origin as 60% recycled polyester to our Reno warehouse generated nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, 24 times the weight of the finished product. This jacket left behind, on its way to Reno, two-thirds its weight in waste.

It’s a classy reminder: Sometimes, the best Stuff is the stuff you already have. Which is why we have dozens of Stuff-related actions at Practically Green, including:

Give experiential holiday gifts (worth 10 points at Practically Green)

Attend a swap event or use a swap site (5 points)

Organize or join a neighborhood tool or equipment-sharing cooperative (10 points)

See all of them right here – and please suggest yours: http://practicallygreen.com/actions/stuff

Patagonia R2 Jacket

If you’d still like to get a Patagonia jacket, you might check the listings on eBay. We saw 205 pages of apparel there when we last checked 5 minutes ago.

Buy something used on eBay or Craigslist (5 points)

Chris in action in the kitchen

• 1) Eat the colors of the rainbow. Not only is this good for your health, the more fresh fruits and vegetables you eat, the less meat and processed foods you eat, which are not as sustainable or environmentally friendly.

• 2) Plant a garden. You just can’t beat the taste of homegrown, garden fresh vegetables, but did you know having a garden is also environmentally friendly? A healthy garden is good for the soil, and it creates an environment for bees and other insects that play a huge role in our ecosystem.

Eat the Rainbow! (Photo credit: karimian @flickr)

• 3) Buy local. Organic is appealing to conscious consumers, but remember that the bulk of organic produce is grown thousands of miles away and must be flown in. Instead of buying organic, buy local, which traveled a much shorter distance.
• 4) Cook more. Preparing meals yourself is not only a great way to save money and eat healthier, it’s a great way to reduce waste. Plastic utensils, metal or paper containers, plastic bags and paper napkins can all be eliminated when you cook at home.

Rule 4: Cook More! (credit cheesy42@flickr)

• 5) Pack an eco-friendly lunch. Most brown bag lunches generate a lot of trash. The brown bag itself, plastic baggies that hold food, and the food containers themselves (i.e., yogurt). Use Tupperware containers instead of plastic bags and buy in bulk rather than buying individualized items. You can store your bulk items in the garage, just keep them away from the garage door and closer to the home. Also, keep everything sealed or you will attract bugs and rodents.
• 6) Kick your soda and bottled water habit. Recycling is good, but not having to recycle at all is even better. Say “no” to beverages that come in cans or bottles.
• 7) Participate in Meatless Mondays and eat more vegetarian meals. The less meat we eat, the greener we’ll be.
• 8) Buy green products. Whenever you have the option, chose brands that use recycled paper or are otherwise committed to environmentally safe practices. Support eco-friendly companies whenever possible.
• 9) Bake your own cookies. Instead of buying a bag of cookies, bake some. Processed foods, like cookies, are mass produced on equipment that uses a lot of energy. Then they are packaged in materials that you ultimately throw away and are then distributed all over the United States. Be green and bake.

Rule 9: Bake Cookies! (credit marshsu @flickr)

• 10) Buy free range, grass fed, and humane animal products. Factory farming is cruel and wreaks havoc on the environment.

Join in the discussion in the comments below and/or share the piece.

Chris & Rachel

About the Author: Chris lives in New Jersey with his wife Rachel and their baby boy. He works at a Mom & Pop operation.… He says “being middle middle class, living green and healthy can be difficult but we do our best. We mostly concentrate efforts on the mantra reduce, reuse, recycle; avoiding wastefulness; and keeping our energy consumption to a minimum — even if it means getting an earful from parents every time it’s cold out on why we won’t raise the thermostat higher. We run a food blog, thekeenancookbook.com.” Chris also writes for Precision Garage Door, and he maintains a personal house and garden blog.

Top rank goes to Levi’s, so we called to find out more.

“Levi’s did its first lifecycle assessment in 2007,” Brianna Wolf told us. “We took two of our iconic products, 501 denim jeans and Dockers original khakis. Here’s what we learned: the greatest opportunity for improvement was at the beginning of the cycle – the raw materials stage — and at the end of the cycle, relating to consumer use.”

In the lifecycle of a pair of Levi’s® 501® jeans, we’ve found that the largest water impact comes from the cotton growing process and through the laundry habits of consumers, after they leave our stores. But we can’t ask our suppliers and consumers to change their behaviors unless we’re also willing to make some changes ourselves.

Life Cycle of a Jean

Levi’s came up with this consumer care tag, which points to four (ok, five) actions you’ll find on Practically Green:

Wash only full loads of laundry (20 points)

Wash laundry in cold water (50 points)

Donate clothes to a charity (20 points)

Line-dry laundry seasonally (25 points)

Line-dry laundry all year (50 points)

Levi's Customer Care Tag

“We identified another big opportunity area in the cotton field. We joined the Better Cotton Initiative, which makes positive change happen across the supply chain. Our goal is to get better cotton into 20% of our products by 2015. So far we’ve got it in 2 million pairs of jeans!”

This infographic illustrates the process:

Another great reason to wear Levi’s: the water-reducing strategies developed for the Water<Less collection.

Last year, we announced the Levi’s® Water<Less™ collection – denim finished in a way that uses significantly less water. Up to 96 percent less for some products.

As a result of this innovative process, we produced nearly 1.5 million pairs of jeans for this year’s spring line while saving 16 million liters of water.

But we knew we could do more. So we’ve been working with our suppliers around the globe to spread these water-saving techniques.

And we’re proud to say that the Levi’s® global collection now includes nearly 12 million jeans in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Since we introduced the Water<Less collection, we have saved 156 million liters of water around the world. That’s 60 million days of drinking water for communities in need.

Here’s something else you can do with old jeans: insulate your walls! (Levi’s estimates it has 25,000 jeans in the walls of its new San Francisco headquarters.)

Add insulation to your walls (100 points)

What do you think? Will you look for Levi’s the next time you buy a pair of jeans?