It should come as no surprise that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans’ excessiveness hits an annual high, especially where waste is concerned: We throw out 25 percent more garbage than we do the rest of the year. That’s a million extra tons of garbage per week.

So this year consider some of the tidbits below provided by The ULS Report (that stands for Use Less Stuff). Use a few of the suggestions and Mother Nature will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

• If every family saved and reused just 2 feet of ribbon per year, enough ribbon would be saved to tie a bow around the entire planet. When unwrapping gifts, poke two holes in a paper plate, then make a two long slices with a sharp knife, then feed the ribbons through so they are easy to find and reuse later.

• The more than 2 billion holiday cards sold in the United States each year could fill a football field 10 stories high. If each family cut back by one card (not that The ULS Report advocates “Scrooginess”), they’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper. At least try using recycled paper products and send e-cards when possible.

• If every American throws away just one tablespoon of mashed potatoes, it adds 16 million pounds of waste to landfills. If that’s unimaginable in your family, think of it this way: One discarded spoonful of cranberry sauce amounts to over 14 million pounds. Make only as much as you need and eat moderately. 

• Reduce the number of bags thrown out by carrying your own, whether you’re shopping for gifts or groceries. The ULS Report has more useful tips on its Web site at http://use-less-stuff.com/ .