When all the gifts have been opened and the boxes and bows bagged, the last phase of Christmas begins — hauling away the trash.

It seems Americans will use $ 5 billion worth of gift wrapping at Christmas time.

That translates into an extra million tons of trash a week for this one season.

“There is a growing concern that the holiday season has gotten just so wasteful,” says Betsy Taylor, president of the Center for a New American Dream, an advocacy group for voluntary simplicity. “People are not comfortable with the feel of it.”

More than half of Americans say their lifestyles produce too much waste and that more recycling, energy, and water conservation – and less packaging – are needed, the center’s polling shows.

While Americans are less enthusiastic about activities such as home recycling and saving electricity, a rising number of people say they would pay more for products that cause less pollution, a Roper poll found as far back as 2002.

“This is a very environmentally conscious group,” says NMI marketing consultant Gwynne Rogers of the 55 million consumers who make “green” purchases. “They are interested in where the product came from, how it’s going to be used – the whole product life cycle. They’re not going to forget these values at Christmastime.”

There is also a mainstreaming of environmental values among consumers, Ms. Rogers adds, with many organic and other products appealing to people “who aren’t crunchy-granola Berkeley types.”

“People are more anxious to feel part of the solution, not part of the problem,” says Lawrence Comras, president of a 5-year-old ecogift company. “We’re like little elves running around scouring the country for ecofriendly products, getting them all under one roof, and making it easy for people to act on their good intentions.”

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