Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful 12 Day of a Green Holiday Challenge

GET READY TO HAVE THE GREENEST HOLIDAYS YET

There will be 12 challenges as we celebrate the 12 days of

a green Christmas.

Join daily to learn many ways you can be greener this holiday.

Challenge Day #1 -

Take the Holiday Waste Quiz

The first challenge is to realize how much waste increases from Thanksgiving to New Year's. It's a lot, and most do not realize how much.

Take the quiz from Audubon to learn about holiday waste and easy tips to reduce waste.

Holiday Waste Quiz

How many gallons of water could US households save if they used 10 gallons less on Christmas?

10,000

Select

100,000

Select

1,000,000

Select

1,000,000,000

Select

Americans generate 6,000,000 extra tons of waste between Thanksgiving and New Years.

True

Select

False

Select

Forty percent (40%) of annual sales of which product occur during the holiday season.

Batteries

Select

Wrapping Paper

Select

Hallmark Cards

Select

Tape

Select

How many Christmas trees end up in landfills each year?

50,000

Select

30,000,000

Select

75,000,000,000

Select

to many to count

Select

Christmas trees can be composted and/or recycled once you no longer want to use them?

True

Select

False

Select

Answer 1: How many gallons of water could American households save if they each used just 10 gallons less on Christmas?

D -- 1,000,000,000. “Running your tap continuously while preparing food or washing dishes wastes water and can use more than two gallons of water every minute your tap is running,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Some tips from the EPA: Scrape dirty dishes rather than using water for the task, and if you’re dishwasher-less, soap up all your dishes, then rinse them at once.

Answer 2: Americans generate 6,000,000 extra tons of waste between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

True. There’s more waste created during this five-week period than any the entire year. Some of that includes the 2.6 billion cards we send annually, and the ribbon we use, which could wrap around the earth twice.

Answer 3: Forty percent (40%) of annual sales of which product occur during the holiday season.

A, Batteries. According to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), 40 billion single-use batteries were sold in 2006 alone. Instead, why not use rechargeables?

Answer 4: How many Christmas trees end up in landfills each year?

A, 30,000,000. But even with this number, the National Christmas Tree Association suggests that real trees are better for the environment than fake trees.

Just remember to compost or recycle it after the fact. See the answer to question 5 for more details.

Answer 5: Christmas trees can be composted and/or recycled once you no longer want to use them?

True. There are 4,000 Christmas tree recycling programs across the U.S., according to the National Christmas Tree Association.

Find how to compost Real Christmas trees by Rhode Island municipality

click here.

Find out how to recycle artificial trees - many times they can be recycled in scrap metal programs in your community. Call your Public Works department for details.

TELL US IF YOU'RE JOINING TODAY'S CHALLENGE

Follow these daily challenge ideas and you'll be off

on the green path to help save our environment.