Three fun ways to reduce single-use plastics this holiday season

Single-use plastics are the plastics people use once, then throw away. They make up about half the plastic Americans use every day.

Balloons, candy-wrappers, straws, and plastic bottles/utensils — all these are  common holiday items. Unfortunately, they're also made of single-use plastics. And this kind of plastic pollution also threatens our environment. 

Here are 3 fun ways to celebrate the holidays while reducing your consumption of single-use plastics.

1. Try homemade. Instead buying all your treats, try some homemade goodies. Be creative in the kitchen. Craft your own decorations, costumes, and treats. 

2. Buy bulk. You can bring your own glass containers to bulk stores. Why not stock up on unwrapped bulk treats?

3. Go with wood. Instead of plastic streamers and balloons, decorate with Uncle Goose Halloween blocks. They're made from fast-growing, renewable basswood.

But don't stop at Halloween. When you decorate for Christmas and Hanukkah, your Uncle Goose has other sustainable decor and gift ideas. You can make merry and still reduce your reliance on single-use plastics. 

All Uncle Goose toys and decor are hand-crafted from locally-sourced basswood. And all our packaging is paper-based. Most of it comes from recycled paper. 

The Upscale Orange Storage Box is chipboard. The Uncle Goose storage bag is canvas. And any holiday gift wrap you choose is also paper.

We even re-purpose our wood scrap and wood dust. Real-live horses bed on our wood curls. Some people even use our wood salvage to heat their homes.  

And yet your Uncle Goose still uses some stretch film for the shrink-wrapping. We haven’t found a way around that — yet.

Conversation Starters. Can your personal gift, treat, and decoration choices have any kind of meaningful environmental impact? And what are you doing to reduce single-use plastics this holiday season?