Use Less Stuff: An Interview With Sustainability Expert Bob Lilienfeld

Bob Lilienfeld is editor of “The ULS Report,” a newsletter aimed at spreading the benefits of source reduction (ULS means Use Less Stuff).

People shop along Broadway on Dec. 2, 2013, in New York City. According to the National Retail Federation, retail spending over the Thanksgiving weekend fell for the first time in at least seven years. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Use Less Stuff Day is celebrated in America on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. As the holidays can mark a peak of consumerism and waste, ULS offers a way to enjoy the period in a more sustainable way.

Environmentalist, author, commentator, and photographer Bob Lilienfeld started the observance. Here is an interview with him.

Epoch Times: Why did you start Use Less Stuff Day?

Bob Lilienfeld: Americans throw away 25 percent more stuff per week between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Use Less Stuff Day was created to alert people to this incremental 5 million tons of waste, and help them learn how to reduce it.

Epoch Times: Tell us more about the Sustainable Products Certification Program.

Mr. Lilienfeld: We want to help businesses and other organizations promote products that have undergone significant decreases in material usage or energy consumption. If at least a 10 percent reduction versus similar or previous products can be proven, we allow the products to feature the ULS logo for a two-year period. The cost to do so is minimal. We charge only our time to certify and announce the claim. There is no ongoing royalty fee.

Bob Lilienfeld, editor, The ULS Report. Courtesy of Bob Lilienfeld