The Holidays – a time of decorating and celebrating with family and friends.
By: Dawn Slack, Environmental Research Manager
The first week of December is upon us and for many that means decorating our homes inside and out with lights and beautiful shiny decorations. Gifts have been homemade or purchased and now we’re starting to look for wrapping paper, ribbons, gift tags and all other things beautiful to wrap the gifts and have them glisten under our trees.
I’ve always loved sparkly things – ever since I was a little girl, I chose the rubber boots with the sparkles (who am I kidding, I’ve done that within the last few years as well), purchased shirts and pillows covered in sequence for my daughter. I love all the pretty Christmas tree ornaments – and you guessed it, especially the ones just covered in glitter! The smaller the flecks of glitter, the more surface area there is for light to reflect and the more prisms of light that reflect make the item appear more sparkly!
But wait… glitter, be it beautiful, is extremely bad for the environment.
I would like to follow up these opening statements with how detrimental glitter is to our environment and the animals residing here on earth. As an Environmental Engineering Technologist, this is very concerning to me because I know the staggering number of items, I have bought over the years containing glitter. I chose to buy the sparkly items over items without sparkles for almost thirty years! As troubling as that is, what’s done is done and I will now make more conscious decisions to purchase the non-glittery products over the once preferred glittery ones.
What is glitter?
Glitter is nothing more than teeny tiny pieces of plastic: polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), typically coated with other products (such as aluminum) to give it extra sparkle. Flakes of glitter can be as small as 0.05 mm and come in all different shapes such as circles, squares, you name it. Glitter is then adhered to objects with glue to give the product that beautiful reflective property.
What holiday items do we find glitter on?
Perhaps the better question is, what holiday items don’t we find glitter on? Glitter comes on virtually everything from cards, gift tags, wrapping paper, even in pen ink. We all know how difficult it is to clean up if it gets spilled in your home – imagine it spilling in the freshwater sources we drink from and oceans our seafood is grown. Some particles are so tiny that not even the freshwater and wastewater facilities can remove it.
Why is glitter so horrible for the environment? Glitter is another source of microplastics.
You’ve probably heard about microplastics over the last few years and the negative effects they have on our environment. Tiny fibres of synthetic fabrics enter waterways and aquatic animals eat them when they’re indistinguishable from things like pieces of jellyfish (large part of sea turtle diet), algae and other aquatic vegetation. Many fish eat these microplastics which are unable to be digested and in turn accumulates in their bodies, slowly killing them over time.
Glitter (microplastic) is extremely dangerous to phytoplankton which are microscopic photosynthetic marine algae vital to marine food webs. Phytoplankton are a primary source of food to other small aquatic animals such as zooplankton, small fish and crustaceans. Phytoplankton have an amazing role in our lakes and oceans; they fix nitrogen levels and provide oxygen in aquatic environments.
Phytoplankton Zooplankton
Researchers examined the effects of five different concentrations of glitter particles on phytoplankton growth over 21 days. The highest growth record was that of the growth media containing zero mg of glitter per litre of water. The lowest growth record was that of the highest concentration of 200mg/L. “We found that increasing the amount of glitter raised the biovolume of the cyanobacterial cells and boosted stress to levels that even impaired photosynthesis,” said Mauricio Junior Machado.
How you can reduce your environmental impact?
Each year, over 500,000 tonnes of wrapping paper is discarded at Christmas. That is a staggering number of discarded materials! According to Statistics Canada’s Disposal of waste, by source tables, Canada as a whole has increased all sources of waste between 2018 and 2020 by nearly 375 thousand tonnes! Further breakdown of our Maritime provinces shows Prince Edward Island has increased waste by 1,831 tonnes, Nova Scotia has increased waste by 7,407 tonnes — but wait, congratulations to New Brunswick which shows a decrease in waste by 9,009 tonnes between 2018 and 2020!
Solid waste and methane emissions.
In Canada, only 3% of solid waste is incinerated, sending the remaining 97% to landfills.
Solid waste landfills are to blame for approximately 23% of methane emissions from Canada in 2020, thankfully this is decreasing by 3.5% from 2005 to 2020.
“Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere.” (Environmental Defense Fund, 2023). We know that we are currently in an emergent state of climate change, we have currently surpassed many scientific predictions up to the year 2100. This explains why we are experiencing drastic changes in weather patterns as well as seasonal disturbances and other strange phenomena. As Helping Nature Heal’s Environmental Research Manager, I encourage you to do some researching to answer any questions you may have about climate change.
What can we do as individuals to help?
Try to limit use of plastic plates, cups and cutlery which also contribute so much waste into the landfill over the holidays.
Please consider wrapping gifts with items that can be reused and repurposed such as holiday towels, a scarf; make the wrapping part of the gift. Homemade baked goods are wonderful gifts – place into a reusable container and gift to family or friends.
You can use materials that can be composted such as natural strings and fabrics, assorted cones, twigs, feathers, berries, fir tree boughs, sea glass, or cinnamon sticks as decorations. Affix wooden coin gift tags or use last year’s Christmas cards by cutting them into tags. Brown paper gift bags with brown paper handles can be used as compost bags or clean ones can go with cardboard for recycling.
Skip plastic artificial wreaths, trees and buy natural ones that can be used in your landscape after the holidays. Make sure all decorations, hooks, glitter and other artificial ornaments are removed from your Christmas tree and donate it to someone with goats, they love to munch on the branches. You can also use your Christmas tree as habitat for animals such as birds, squirrels and smaller critters such as salamanders which love to hide underneath woody debris. Cut the boughs off the tree and place them over perennial flowers to create protection from snowfall and ice.
If purchasing gifts, choose companies that are conscious about using natural materials such as Melissa & Doug toys, bracelets made of recycled plastics from Four Ocean “Every purchase helps fund the removal of a pound of garbage from the ocean” – Four Ocean.
Halifax Education and Outreach describes Garbage & Recycling Tips for the Holidays. If you live outside HRM, check out your county or municipal website for tips in your area.
Recent Events
Rosmarie and Dawn visited Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine
We had an incredible time exploring Isle de la Madeleine! Jasmine, Camille, and the entire group were incredibly welcoming and generous. They showed us around various sites, shared local initiatives and research projects, and highlighted areas in need of healing programs. Their innovative work is truly inspiring, and they are eager to learn from us in order to develop their own response to climate change. Excited to collaborate with them on a multi-year program! – Rosmarie
Rosmarie hosted her fun Paper Making Workshops at HNH which was a success!
Helping Nature Heal Academy + Shop
Justyna has been working tirelessly creating our Helping Nature Heal Academy + Shop where you can currently purchase the Ecological Design Course 2024 with the option of:
pre-recorded $195 + hst
6 week live $295 + hst
live session + site visit (Lunenburg + Queens county) $395 + hst
Helping Nature Heal Gift Cards now available in $250 denominations
Upcoming Events
Are you attending the Lunenburg Farmers’ Market or Bridgewater Farmers’ Market in December? Rosmarie will have a booth setup to help get ahead of your Christmas gift wrapping.
Upcoming Workshops
Rosmarie has two more amazing workshops to offer at Helping Nature Heal headquarters: 671 Lahave Street, Bridgewater. Please call the office for pricing and registration at 902-543-7416.
Natural Decor Workshop
Wednesday, December 6 from 1 – 4 pm or 6 – 9 pm
Natural Gift Wrap Workshop
Wednesday, December 13 from 1 – 4 pm or 6 – 9 pm
Eco-Landscape Design Course
Our popular 6-week Ecological Landscape Design Course is for anyone interested in ecological landscape design whether for a particular site or in general, who also is interested in sustainable-low maintenance, organic, restorative , natural and/or food producing landscapes. No previous experience necessary! We have limited spaces available for our upcoming 2024 winter course, so contact us and sign up today!
Wednesday (1-4 PM), January 3th – February 7th 2024
-OR-
Wednesday (1-4 PM), March 13th – April 17th 2024
Course options:
- Pre-recorded course: $195+tax
- 6 week live sessions (with optional homework): $295+tax
- Live session + site visit (Lunenburg + Queens county): $395+tax
Interested? Contact us: office@helpingnatureheal.com | 902.543.7416
Winter Services
Happy Holidays to colleagues, clients, family and friends. Wishing you peace and joy in 2024!
To book a consultation today, click here for our booking form or call the Helping Nature Heal office at (902) 543-7416!