Holiday facts and trivia

From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25 percent. Added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons — it all adds up to an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. (EPA and Use Less Stuff)

Food
At least 28 billion pounds of edible food are wasted each year — or over 100 pounds per person. Putting one less cookie on Santa’s plate will reduce his snacking by about 2 million pounds. (Use Less Stuff, 1998)
If every American throws away just one uneaten tablespoon of mashed potatoes it adds 16 million pounds of waste to our landfills. (Cygnus Group)
Paper
Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products. (The Recycler’s Handbook, 1990)
Christmas Trees
Each year, 50 million Christmas trees are purchased in the U.S. (Cygnus Group). Of those, about 30 million go to the landfill. (Environmental News Network)
Gifts
The average American spends $800 on gifts over the holiday season. According to a national survey, 70 percent of Americans would welcome less emphasis on gift giving and spending. (Center for a New American Dream)
About 40 percent of all battery sales occur during the holiday season (EPA)
Transportation
If each family reduced holiday gasoline consumption by one gallon (about 20 miles), we’d reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one million tons. (Use Less Stuff, 1998)
Published in The Messenger 12.24.07

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