Nature centre puts a wrap on re-usables
GOAL TO TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO REDUCE WASTE
A Helen Schuler Nature Centre program recently gave Lethbridge residents an opportunity to enjoy a different kind of “green” Christmas.
On Saturday, local residents took part in the Centre’s “Green Christmas Wrapping Party” where they could wrap their gifts using re-usable material.
Daina Ully, a volunteer at the Nature Centre who was helping run the event on Saturday said the goal was to teach people how they could cut down on their waste during the holidays and help save the environment.
“We’re upcycling and helping the environment by teaching people about the different products available – from fabrics to cereal boxes to newspapers – to wrap gifts,” she said.
“There are also gifts you can buy that aren’t wasteful. Like an art class.”
Ully said the importance of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle efforts are especially important during the holiday season, which traditionally sees an increase in the amount of waste ending up in landfills.
“I think it’s a great thing for people looking to help save the environment,” she said.
This is the first year for the event, and Ully said she is hoping to see it become a regular event.
She said nontraditional wrapping can sometimes have its own challenges – such as finding the right shape of wrapping material. In the end, the act of wrapping the gift can become part of the gift itself, at it provides an opportunity to be creative.
“It’s phenomenal,” she said. “I used to use so much tape. But now that I know a different way of wrapping presents, I don’t think I’ll ever wrap with much tape ever again.”
According to statistics provided by the Helen Schuler Nature Centre, in Canada, more than 1.2 billion pounds of waste is generated from gift-wrapping and shopping bags each year.
This holiday season, every Canadian will throw away an average of 110 lbs of garbage.
Lethbridge disposes more waste per person than both the provincial and national average.
Each year we produce enough waste to fill the water tower 90 times.
If everyone in Canada wrapped just three presents in reused paper or gift bags, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 hockey rinks.
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