By Jessica Hare 
Keep Alliance Beautiful 

It can be a little difficult to keep your head on straight during the holidays.  It’s a time when any desire to be intentional can quickly go flying out the window in exchange for that once-a-year whirlwind of family, food, and presents.  In short, we just don’t behave how we usually behave. Financially, nutritionally, or environmentally- it’s difficult to not slip up.

I had a few things that I was going to try this year to keep the holiday season on the greener side, but, as Christmas got closer, these notions got a little blurry and basically fell off my radar completely.  At one point, a few weeks ago, I had thought to myself that I should use the paper bags that I’d gotten (from the times I’d forgotten my reusable bags) as wrapping paper. I was feeling so motivated at that point that I even intended to decorate everyone’s wrapping paper with markers to make them extra special.  Fast forward to this morning: I just finished wrapping my family’s presents with regular old wrapping paper and it hits me, I completely forgot about my intention to upcycle those bags. I was in a store, I saw wrapping paper, I bought it, I used it. Oops.

While I’m bummed about this misstep, I’m going to remember that there are other ways for me to attempt a greener Christmas.  Possibly the easiest and most important thing we can do is to ensure that all the cardboard and paperboard produced by our holiday gift-giving makes it to the recycling center.  

According to Earth911.com and Keep America Beautiful, it takes three tons of trees to make one ton of virgin cardboard.  Also, recycling that one ton of cardboard saves nine cubic yards of landfill space. If you are like me and are struggling to keep track of those one-off opportunities to be green, just focus on the fundamentals.  Even something as basic as cardboard recycling will make a difference.