Published 1:07 pm Tuesday, December 16, 2014

King County is making it easier to reduce the environmental impact of the holiday season with Green Holidays, a program that provides resources for sustainable gift-giving, decorating, entertaining and recycling all the waste.

“Many King County residents want to reduce waste during the holidays but don’t necessarily know how or where to find the resources,” said King County Green Holidays project manager and ecoConsumer Tom Watson. “Our Green Holidays program shows how to help us keep our families healthy, save money and protect our environment.”

King County Green Holidays includes ideas such as asking retailers to recycle old Christmas lights, locations to drop off non-recyclable Styrofoam packaging, how to turn recycled materials into ornaments and more.

Green Holidays has added a number of new resources this year, including a mini-guide to sources of fair-trade products in the King County area, in the Give Green section of the Green Holidays website.

Buying fair-trade products, as described in Watson’s recent EcoConsumer column, helps ensure that people around the world making the products receive a living wage and are treated fairly. Fair trade products can include home décor, kitchen items, clothing, jewelry, personal-care products, food and beverages.

The holiday lights recycling section of the Green Holidays website, expanded and updated for 2014, provides useful, timely information for the many King County residents who have recently upgraded to energy-efficient LED holiday lights. More than 40 locations in King County and nearby are listed for recycling your broken or unwanted holiday lights.

King County’s Green Holidays resources also include many fun, new ideas for DIY gifts, wrapping, entertaining and decorating using reused and recycled materials.

For more information on the program, please contact Watson at 206-477-4481, or tom.watson@kingcounty.gov.