It’s Christmas Day!
Images of children running down the stairs to a tree adorned with presents, ripping through tape and paper and ribbon while piles of discarded wrapping paper get stuffed into a plastic trash bag… is thankfully a distant memory.
In fact, here are some Christmas waste stats from the United Kingdom:
- 300,000 tons of card packaging is used at Christmas; enough to cover London’s famous landmark, Big Ben, almost 260,000 times.
- 1 billion cards end up in the bin, when they could be recycled.
- The amount of wrapping paper used for presents is enough to wrap around the equator 9 times.
- 227,000 miles of wrapping paper is thrown away.
- 6 million Christmas trees are discarded every year 250 tons of Christmas trees are thrown away after Christmas, when they could be used for compost.
- Approximately 2 million turkeys, 74 million mince pies and 17.2 million Brussel sprouts are thrown away every Christmas.
-beautifulhouse.com
Well, hopefully that’s not quite the case this year.
Throughout December, we provided a list of tips to help reduce holiday waste, from gifting experiences or handmade objects, to wrapping in sustainable materials, avoiding tape in favor of reused ribbons, and even tips on plastic-free decorating and baking.
So what now?!
Well, this morning, as you get ready to celebrate, take it easy. Bask in the glory of your accomplishments. Haste makes waste, and we worked too hard this season for that!
When unwrapping presents, do not tear! Try to save the paper for reuse. We can’t always control gifts given to us, be appreciative, even if commercial tape and wrapping paper were used. Just peel off the tape if possible, unwrap gently, and use that paper again, or better, make decorations of them for next year.
Make decorations out of wrapping paper:
(just use natural glue instead of buying new glue gun sticks, pushable glue sticks, or Elmer’s glue, etc.)
During dinner, there’s no reason to be a glutton. Adding too much on your place often creates sore tummies or wasted food. Serve yourself small portions at first, and go back for seconds as needed. Wasted food isn’t helping anything. But if it happens, compost whatever you can. Try not to add any food materials to landfill, it’s a serious zero waste no no.
Let your Christmas food motto be: MAKE LESS, TAKE LESS!
Zero Waste California 