Eco-Friendly Ideas for Your Thanksgiving Celebration
Thanksgiving is just around the corner! It’s a holiday celebrating family, friends, and the harvest bounty. But sometimes bounty becomes excess and waste. If you’re looking for some simple and practical ways to make your holidays more earth-friendly, read on!
Buy local & organic
- Our food sometimes travels very far away to get to us. It’s transported by trains, planes, ships, and trucks to get to us, all of which emit CO₂ and contribute to global warming. Buy food grown nearby to reduce the distance it has to travel to get to your table. Fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals used on food are also harmful to the environment, and many end up in our watersheds (and eventually in the ocean). Organic options use fewer chemicals and pesticides, so choose these when you’re able to! Local and organic food is often more expensive, so do what you can within your budget. Maybe choose a few items that you’ll buy from the farmer’s market this year for starters and support local farmers!
Skip the plastic packaging
- So much food comes in plastic packaging these days. I saw a shrink wrapper sweet potato at the grocery store the other day! Bring your own produce bags to the store to cut down on plastic, the plastic bags shoved in the cabinet under your sink will work just fine. Opt for no packaging or cardboard packaging whenever you can. An added bonus is that you won’t have to take out the trash as often when you throw away less plastic!
Offer more vegetarian options
- I know, I know, turkey is the heart of most Thanksgiving dinners and the thought of replacing it is HORRIFYING to many. But if you’re ready to make a big change, try a Tofurkey (they’re better than they sound!), or maybe bring a vegetarian dish to your friendsgiving rather than a meat one. I’m not the kind of vegetarian who believes everyone should stop eating meat immediately, but if everyone ate less meat this would go a long way to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and make better use of farm land.
Ditch the plastic dishes and silverware
- The fewer things that end up in your trash bin, the better! If you have too many guests and not enough reusable dishes, you can opt for paper plates and wooden silverware that can be composted instead of being thrown out. Recyclable aluminum cups are becoming more commonplace and are a great alternative to plastic solo cups. Make sure your cleanup crew knows what can be recycled.
Have guests bring their own containers for leftovers instead of disposable plates & tinfoil
- Tupperware or old takeout containers work great!
Make sure leftovers get eaten
- Freeze them, share them, or make them into something else. If you can’t eat them all, compost is the next best option. North County residents (Santa Maria & Lompoc) can put all food waste (including meat & animal products!) in their green waste bins. South County residents should put food waste in the trash-most of it will get sorted out and composted in an anaerobic digestion facility at the landfill. A home compost is always the most eco-friendly option, check out lessismore.com for tips on starting your own compost!
Buy conscientiously on Black Friday
- Good deals are hard to resist! But buying more stuff makes more waste. If you do shop, try to buy things made from natural materials, things you really need, or things that will be used for a long time. I have at least one item that I plan to buy on Black Friday that I need and know I will use long term. Avoid impulse purchases or things that are cheap and will break in a few months’ time. Art From Scrap will be CLOSED on Black Friday to encourage you to get outside!
And finally and most importantly, learn the true story of Thanksgiving and remember whose land we are on
- Santa Barbara County is Chumash land and has been since long before the Spanish, French, or English arrived in what is now the United States of America. The Chumash have deep ties to this land and have ecological knowledge that is incredibly valuable as we work to protect and preserve this beautiful place we call home. So as you celebrate with loved ones and eat delicious food, remember to honor the people who have lived here since before written history began.
Josh was born and raised in Santa Barbara, where his passion and curiosity for the environment began and has continued to grow. During his undergraduate studies, Josh pursued this interest at the University of California at Santa Cruz, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies.
Melissa Dodos developed her passion for creative reuse as a mother of four and elementary educator over the past 25 years. She loves to inspire creativity by connecting people with resources and ideas.
Veronica grew up in San Diego and spent four years in San Luis Obispo studying Animal Science at Cal Poly. As an undergrad she learned lots about livestock, agriculture, and wildlife.
Stephanie began her journey as an educator over twenty years ago working as a preschool teacher in Washington state for a cooperative preschool program affiliated with Whatcom Community College. She loved observing the wonder and curiosity of the children and bringing them out into nature to explore the natural world. She continued her love for learning and got her teaching license and then her Montessori certification and worked as an elementary teacher in Tribal, Public, and Montessori schools. She collaborated to create a school garden and her students loved it so much that it became a special place where they could garden, read, explore, play, and it provided a safe sanctuary for students to calm down and reset when they were having difficult moments.
Morgan’s mermaid soul is always seeking adventure—swimming a relay across the Santa Barbara Channel and taking the first photo of a newborn orca off Anacapa Island being standout experiences close to home.
Lindsay Johnson
