How to make your holiday as waste-free as possible: DIY tips and advice

For example, instead of ribbon, use twine or compostable twine with a cutting (a holly sprig, eucalyptus clipping, or spruce branch) stuck into it. It’s a rustic look that will hold up even if you wrap things well in advance. Alternatively, add something less sturdy, such as flowers or berries, just before handing out the gifts.

Don’t forget the tape!

The last thing you want to do is make all these adjustments and ruin it by using standard plastic tape that can’t be recycled. Duct tape now offers a plastic-free version of its famous tape, which is 100 percent vegetable and fully compostable. Alternatively, consider paper options like washi tape. These also tend to have pretty designs, which can also help liven up plainer brown paper.

Send fewer cards or go digital

If you have a family that loves Christmas cards, this can be a hard habit to break, but about 2.65 billion Christmas cards are sold each year in the U.S., and sending one less card each would save 50,000 cubic yards of paper. , according Stanford University.

It’s helpful that there are now fantastic digital options that can be sent to friends and family by email, completely eliminating waste, and that can be sent at the last minute when it’s too late to send something by post. Go the extra mile to talk to your loved ones beforehand about the possibility of all of you going the digital route for greater environmental benefit.

If you can’t bear to disrupt family tradition, be sure to choose your cards as carefully as you choose your wrapping paper. Avoid glitter and foil, and look for cards labeled as recyclable. Even better: Also look for those that are made from post-consumer recycled materials. You can even buy cards that have seeds embedded in them and can be planted!

Of course, you only have control over the cards you send. If you receive some cards that are not recyclable, consider saving them and cutting them up to reuse the parts with Christmas symbols as gift tags for next year.

Choose a real Christmas tree, if you have one

It may seem counterintuitive, but even though real trees are only used once before being thrown away, they generate less waste than their artificial counterparts. This is because a real tree can be completely recycled if disposed of correctly and can be used for things like firewood, wood chips or compost.

Artificial trees, on the other hand, are made from materials that cannot be recycled and will only end up in landfills once their time spreading Christmas cheer is over. The carbon trust estimates that you would need to reuse an artificial tree between seven and 20 times (depending on size) to offset the carbon footprint generated by its manufacturing, packaging and shipping. When you buy that real tree (if you haven’t already), make sure you buy something locally grown, which is the most sustainable option since it doesn’t need to be shipped so far.

DIY decorations

When it comes to decorating your tree and your house, the same rules apply. Plastic and aluminum foil are banned, and getting creative is the best way to reduce waste. For great DIY ideas, I’ll send you to YouTube which is full of DIY Christmas decorating tutorials: paper garlands, hanging paper tops, salt dough decorationsto DIY Kwanzaa Lanternand score more. These decorations may not stand the test of time in storage, but they will be completely recyclable and compostable once the holidays are over, meaning you can consciously change your color theme each year.

Store-bought Christmas cookies (cardboard tubes that you pull on both ends to open) should be avoided. They traditionally use shiny, shiny materials, which, like cards and wrapping paper, makes them non-recyclable. And that’s without considering the terrible gift it contains, often made of plastic, and which will usually end up in the bin almost immediately.