Looking forward to a happy holiday season with friends and family? You can also help make it a good one for our environment with these green tips for during and after the holidays, courtesy of the Park Slope Civic Council’s Sustainability Committee.
Gifts
Patronize our fine Park Slope shops; give a gift certificate to one of Park Slope’s wonderful restaurants. Give a membership or contribution in a friend or loved one’s name to a local institution (such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, or even the Civic Council), or plant a tree in Prospect Park.
Gift Wrap and Cards
Consider using old maps, outdated subway maps, sheet music, scarves, leftover fabric, magazine pages, or comics pages for gift wrap. If you do buy gift wrap, make sure it’s made from recycled paper — Lion in the Sun is one store that sells recycled cards and gift wrap.
Reuse last year’s greeting cards by cutting off the message section, punching a hole in the front, and using as gift tags.
Christmas Trees
Use LED lights on your Christmas tree. Recycle old jewelry, greeting cards, and ribbon as tree decorations. String popcorn, cranberries, pretzels, buttons, or pinecones.
Holiday Parties
Rent or borrow glassware, plate ware, and flatware rather than using the throwaway kind.
After the Holidays
Recycle fruit and vegetable leftovers, tea bags, and eggshells at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket’s GrowNYC Compost Collection site, Saturdays 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Recycle paper gift wrap and boxes.
Recycle your tree at Mulchfest, co-sponsored by the Prospect Park Alliance and the Park Slope Civic Council, on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 12 and 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at two entrances to the park: on Third Street and Prospect Park West, Park Circle at Prospect Park Southwest and Parkside Avenue.