There are a variety of ways to reduce your environmental footprint this holiday season. We’ve compiled the Roots & Shoots holiday guide to provide you with creative ideas that will not only help save the planet, but will also help you save money and allow you to spend more time with the people you love!

For example, electronics are a popular holiday gift: MP3 players, cell phones, televisions, laptops, etc. Advertisers are always enticing us to buy the latest, fastest, smallest, electronic device. But what happens to the perfectly good old products that these new ones replace? Most end up in landfills, even though their parts are recyclable. According to Environment Canada, Canadians toss more than 140,000 tonnes of computer equipment, phones, televisions, stereos, and small home appliances each year. That's equal to the weight of 28,000 adult African elephants, or enough uncrushed electronic waste to fill up the Toronto Rogers Centre every 15 years!

The gadgets Canadians dispose of each year contribute approximately 4,750 tonnes of lead, 4.5 tonnes of cadmium and 1.1 tonnes of mercury to landfills, all of which can leach into our ground water. These toxic substances are linked to things such as kidney damage and neurological impairment.

Additionally, there are many dangers associated with the mining of metals (such as coltan, tin, cobalt and platinum) needed to produce consumer electronics and the batteries used to power them. The mining of these metals often occurs in developing countries and has negative consequences for local communities, including labour abuses, environmental degradation, forced relocation, and armed conflict.

If someone already has a portable music player, rather than buying him/her the latest iPod, why not share the gift of music in a different way? Some ideas: buy tickets to a concert or musical to attend together; write and perform a song; provide a free music lesson if you play an instrument; buy a book about a favourite musician; get a subscription to a cable or satellite radio station; buy iTunes credits to download music online. If you do buy the gift of electronics, don’t forget to recycle your old items.

Check out the Roots & Shoots holiday guide for more creative ideas.

The "Useful Links" page on our website is full of information about relevant organizations, competitions, partnerships and youth-led initiatives. The page is growing every week, so visit often to stay up to date.