In 1995, The ULS (Use Less Stuff) Report developed a statistic that is frequently quoted to describe how much extra waste is generated between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day: 5 million tons. Use Less Stuff Day (the third Thursday of November) was created to educate people and help them reduce that waste.
Rather than declining, that number has grown by 20 percent, to 6 million tons. Obviously, Use Less Stuff Day hasn’t been a big enough event to get people into the conservation spirit. Starting this year, ULS is proclaiming the entire week before Thanksgiving (Nov. 19-25, 2009) to be Use Less Stuff Week.
According to Bob Lilienfeld, editor of The ULS Report, here are some reasons why people need to be more aware of waste during the holiday period:
- Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans generate 25 percent more waste per week than during the rest of the year. This creates an additional 1.2 million tons per week, or an extra 6 million tons, for the holiday season.
- According to the USDA, Americans throw away 25 percent of food purchased — 52 billion pounds each year, or 170 pounds per person. When you add in food waste from restaurants, retailers and other commercial purveyors, the University of Arizona estimates that the real amount wasted is closer to 50 percent.
- If every American family reduced holiday gasoline consumption by just one gallon a week, the result would be an annual reduction in greenhouse gas production of 13 billion pounds (6.5 million tons) of carbon dioxide.
- If American households reduced their holiday ribbon usage by just 2 feet, the result would be a savings of 50,000 miles, enough ribbon to circle the Earth twice.
Tags: Food waste, Use Less Stuff
