Most of us want to do the right thing by the environment, but it’s more difficult around Christmas. Americans throw out about 25 million tons more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year than any other comparable period of time. That’s about 25% more trash than usual. And, of course, that much more to try to recycle.
It’s best to think more of holiday waste reduction than recycling. Try not to waste so much in the first place. After all, the 3 Rs of waste management are, in order of importance, reduce, reuse, recycle. But you have all that extra trash, so what do you do with it now?
Don’t feed the landfill
Minnesota’s giant paper ball, which set a Guinness record, represents what Minnesotans discard every 30 seconds.
To begin with, keep a container for recyclables available at all times. Especially when you’re unwrapping presents, it’s easier for people to remember to recycle if it’s obvious and convenient.
But don’t let convenience hamper your choices. Convenience can be the enemy of good stewardship.
People will probably receive gifts that replace something they already have. It’s convenient to make room for the new by throwing out the old but find something else to do with it. And, of course, you will have a mound of paper, ribbon, boxes, and other packaging.
Holiday waste reduction means that before you discard anything, you need to consider if there’s any way to reuse it.
If someone no longer wants old clothes, toys, electronics, etc., someone else would love to have them. Donate anything in good condition to a thrift store. In fact, donate ratty clothes and linens no one can use anymore to a thrift store that handles fabric recycling.
As for electronics, never put them either in the trash or your recycling container. If they’re not reusable, treat them as the hazardous wastes they are and take them to the designated place for them in your community.
Even some of the packaging is reusable. Collect gift bags, bows, etc., and put them with your unused wrapping paper. Then next year, you won’t have to buy as much. Keep bubble wrap for the next time you need to send a package.
Besides the gift exchange, holiday meals generate extra food waste. Compost as much as possible. If you have no way to compost at home, see if you can take food waste somewhere for community composting. With luck, you might even live in an area with a company that will pick it up for a fee.
The current crisis in recycling
This year, holiday waste reduction is more important than ever. Recycling has become more complicated.
Before you take any recyclables out to the curb, make sure you understand what your recycling service accepts and doesn’t accept. It has probably changed recently. Recycling is at a crossroads, and it will take years before we find the best direction to go.
When recycling first started, it accepted only limited materials. Little by little it became possible to put more and more things out for recycling. Unfortunately, it gave people the false idea that almost anything could go in recycling. “Aspirational recycling,” or otherwise doing recycling wrong, contributed to a crisis.
Not long ago, China eagerly bought recyclables. Unfortunately, the shipments it received had up to 25% contamination, materials that didn’t belong in a particular bale. In some cases, sorting errors resulted in, say, paper being mixed in with a bale of plastic.
In other cases, contamination came from people not cleaning out the bottles and jars they put in recycling. Those errors reduced the value of paper and cardboard it spills on. Somehow, all manner of garbage and filth that never should have been put in recycling make it through the sorting process.
China decided it wouldn’t serve as the world’s trash dump any longer and stopped accepting most recycling shipments. That threw the recycling process into an uproar. Recycling centers have found that they can’t sell what they collect. They are also under pressure to produce much cleaner and purer output. So many communities have stopped accepting certain materials. In some cases, curbside recycling and the town’s contractor have different standards.
Some recycling do’s
Waste cardboard
Check your town’s recycling schedule. The holidays usually force some changes, and you don’t want to find you’ve missed your collection time.
You can put cardboard and chipboard boxes out to the curb. Flatten them so they take less space.
Cardboard, especially, still has some resale value. But some cartons have plastic windows. In many places, they don’t cause a problem. Others want you to cut out the plastic and discard it.
If it’s a plastic bottle or jar, put the cap back on after you’ve rinsed it. Loose caps will get lost in the sorting machinery and probably wind up in the landfill. Many places have stopped accepting glass, at least at the curbside. But if you can still recycle glass, it probably has a metal cap or lid. Do not put it back on the jar. Plastic and glass need different handling.
Be sure to rinse out bottles and jars. They don’t need to be completely clean. Excessive rinsing wastes water. But they need to be clean enough that no food residue, detergent, or other contents can leak out and spoil nearby paper. Even with the lid on, the recycling truck will compact everything. That can cause plastic containers to break open.
As for aluminum foil, I suggest folding clean foil and putting it into an aluminum can. That way, it can’t damage equipment or get baled with the paper by mistake.
Some recycling don’ts
Wrapping paper, gift bags, ribbons, and bows are probably not recyclable. I’ve seen mixed advice.
A representative of Republic Services told NBC News that plain printed paper can go in the recycling, but nothing with glitter, lamination, cellophane, or metallic surface. In other words, you can’t recycle the higher-quality papers.
That story also has other useful tips for holiday waste reduction. Of course, check your local regulations before you put even plain wrapping paper out to the curb.
Plastic bags, tablecloths, and other films can’t go out to the curb. They will tangle up sorting equipment. In most places, you can return them to a grocery store. As for bubble wrap, why not keep it for the next time you need to send a package? If you have more than you can use, recycle it at the store with the bags.
Christmas tree lights, extension cords, and the like don’t belong at the curb, either. They can destroy sorting equipment even faster than plastic films. Visit Earth911 for suggestions about what you can do with anything you can’t recycle at the curb or grocery.
Photo credits:
Christmas tree in the snow. Photo by Fahad AlAni from Pexels
Giant paper wad. Source unknown
After the unwrapping. Some rights reserved by ste3ve
Waste cardboard. Image by Hebi B. from Pixabay
Plastic bags. Public domain from Wikimedia Commons
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