Reduce, Reuse, Recycle This Holiday Season

If your holiday, present-opening days are a lot like mine, then along with the wrapped presents, the holiday music, and your family and friends you probably have a couple of garbage bags lying in wait for cleaning up afterwards. Now think about all of the families that will be opening presents in December and filling up trash bags, and then imagine how much trash we are producing. No wonder an organization Use Less Stuff found that Americans produce 25 percent more trash during the holidays than any other time during the year.

Obviously, some trash is inevitable but perhaps if you keep the notion of reduce, reuse and recycle in mind between now and New Year’s, you can help put a dent in the 25 million tons of garbage the holidays create. Here are some ideas to consider:

REDUCE
For starters, choose store-bought items with reduced packaging. Want to buy someone some new electronics? Steer your shopping towards stores that are doing away with those impossible-to-open plastic clam shell packages (made from bad-for-the-earth petroleum). Stores like Target are replacing them with cardboard packaging. The good news here is not only a reduced reliance on petroleum products but also that you can recycle the cardboard packaging after the fact (not always true with those clam shells).

You can also reduce the amount of paper goods and packaging that you use to wrap your presents. Like promised in an earlier post, I am “wrapping” gifts in reusable tote bags from Wal-Mart. These bags, by the way, are made from recycled soda bottles. See the photo at left for my personal take on using these bags in place of regular wrapping. FYI, that’s a reusable ribbon and a jingle bell adorning the bag. The recipient can reuse both items on another present or for decorating a Christmas tree.

I’m also using part of the present as wrapping, as I wrote about here. If you must use traditional wrapping, why not use “green” wrapping paper, such as the kind made from hemp and post-consumer recycled paper from Paporganics. The company also makes biodegradable ribbon, all of which is available at Whole Foods Market.

When entertaining you can reduce your garbage output by foregoing disposable anything and instead using your cloth napkins, washable tablecloths, and own dishes and flatware. Who cares if none of it matches? You can mix and match to create an eclectic tabletop.

REUSE
If you’re on a budget, why not reuse leftover paper or gift bags from last year—assuming you still have them? We keep a stash of holiday gift bags that we use year in and year out. We have so many that we got a large bin full of them, as you can see in the photo at right.

Wondering what to do with all of those holiday cards you get each year? Use pinking sheers to cut them down into gift tags. Plan ahead this year for next year’s wrapping and gift tags by saving paper, bags and holiday cards.

RECYCLE
Come trash day after the holidays, do your best to separate your recyclables from your regular trash so that as little ends up getting thrown away as possible. FYI, some trash collection companies can take wrapping paper as a recyclable, so check with yours first before sending your used wrapping paper to landfill purgatory.

If you’re unsure how best to handle your wrapping paper after you’re done using it, try this: toss it in the shredder and use it as a cushion when packing away your ornaments—in reused boxes that your gifts came in, natch.

When it comes to your tree, if you’ve gotten a cut one this year, ensure that your tree ends up recycled as wood chips and mulch so it can be reused in someone else’s landscaping. Visit www.earth911.org and type “Christmas tree” into the recycling search window to find out which townships and trash collection companies near you offer Christmas tree recycling in January.

I’d love to hear some of the ways you plan to reduce, reuse and recycle this holiday season.