The Earth would be a lot cleaner place if we eliminated gift-giving on Christmas. Household waste increases by 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day: an extra one million tons a week in US landfills, much of it merchandise boxes, gift wrapping and discarded Xmas trees. Nearly 60 percent of Americans receive unwanted gifts during the holidays, of which $90 billion worth are returned. And half of that winds up in landfills because it is often cheaper for a retailer to trash an item than resell it. That’s a lot of energy and resources totally wasted. https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/26/news/retail-returns-landfill/index.html And, of course, there are the millions of gallons of gas consumed by people shopping for gifts. One way to alleviate the problem is to buy people gift cards that are redeemable at “big box” stores so people can use the cards to buy essentials like groceries and take their time to buy what they really want or need. Or, as a culture, we could celebrate Christmas more like Thanksgiving and reserve gift giving for birthdays.
Why not birthdays and anniversaries and mothers day too? Maybe because you hate religion in general and a Christian holiday in particular?
The domino theory was discredited in Vietnam. Don't try selling that "slippery slope" bunk on environmental issues.
I didn't target other holidays and celebrations because they generate less unwanted gifts and other junk that wind up in landfills.
Christmas has become a consumer BS DAY. We are just 4 weeks away when this stupidity starts. What a waste.
