The trash in our traditions: Campus initiatives inspiring change
By Ilana van der Merwe, December 9 2024—
Each holiday has its own traditions, for which essentials can be purchased at any local Walmart, dollar store or Costco. With the holiday season garnering 25 per cent more waste than any other time of the year, it is time that shoppers and celebrators become conscious of trash produced by our traditions.
As October rolls around, Canadians start prepping their costumes for Halloween and their Menus for Thanksgiving. With 83 per cent of Halloween costumes being produced from non-recyclable plastics, landfills are left with 2000 tons of plastic waste each year in Halloween costumes alone. With similar waste expectancies to Canadians, Americans waste approximately 6.5 meals for every Thanksgiving meal consumed.
Including Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, the average American produces approximately 43 pounds of waste a week during the holidays. Between trashed greeting cards, discarded wrapping paper and tossed decorations, the holidays amount to be the most wasteful time of year.
While getting into the spirit of giving, here are some UofC initiatives that can be useful resources to inspire greener choices during the holidays.
The Simpsons Center through the University of Calgary school of public policy has been creating resources through research and projects for communities with intentions positively influencing the environment and those who live in it. Their Regenerative Agriculture project shed light practices in agriculture that are harming the environment, and alternatives that can be taken. Through the work of the Simpson Center, times of mass production and mass consumerism may be addressed with similar regenerative approaches: working to support farmers and businesses with sustainable planning in place.
The Environmental Management and Governance research projects under the University of Calgary’s Department of Geology works to better understand human-environment systems and their interrelations with local and global environment issues. With project goals to establish environmental literacy, the Environmental Management and Governance groups demonstrate the importance of understanding the destructive and developmental effects of human behavior on their environments.
Sustainability Calgary is an organization targeting issues from neighborhood improvements to city wide aid. From designing safe spaces in communities, to turning parking lots into markets from local vendors, Sustainability Calgary works to unite the city in order to ensure city wide benefit from citizen interaction. This program highlights the sustainable advantages of building a stronger sense of community, and that by producing alternatives to individualistic practices like over shopping and careless waste sorting, Calgary is capable of achieving greener outcomes.
With students buzzing around campus this holiday season, bring your families in to help donate to campus programs. Making small changes to your traditions can help keep trash out of landfills and make a difference in others’ holidays.