Eco-Friendly Tips for the Holidays

By: Maria Garcia Manzano, AEIC of the Quill

The holiday season is a wonderful time of year. It is a time of celebrating and spending time with your loved ones. Last holiday season we were not able to gather and celebrate with our loved ones due to the ongoing pandemic. This year will hopefully be different since most Manitobans have been vaccinated. Therefore, we all deserve an amazing Holiday season this year. Unfortunately, Holiday season can also be a time of waste. The good news is that recycling at Holiday season is easy. You can do many things to reduce your impact and still get a lot of joy out of the holidays. Below are some of my tips and tricks for reducing your impact.

Gift Buying

Giving gifts to people you care about is a fun tradition. Unfortunately, the truth is many of us already have everything we need, and if we don’t, we generally go out and buy it. So, when it comes to the Holiday season, the options can be limited. Some families have decided that it is no longer necessary to buy gifts or only buy them for children. This is a great step to take. However, if you can’t bring yourself to give up gifts entirely, here are some great options to reduce waste this Holiday season.

Give Kris Kringle or Secret Santa a go at home. This is where everyone selects a name from a hat and buys a gift for that one person rather than buying a gift for everyone. It means you can focus your efforts and your funds on one person, they get a better-quality gift. Which reduces the chance of them getting a gift they didn’t want.

Why not ask your family what they really want or need? It might just save the item from being discarded after the Holiday season.

Look for gifts that have a low or positive impact. Eco-Friendly gifts like metal straws or plastic-free alternatives can make great presents.

Choose an experience for a gift. Maybe you could even share the experience with them and make a lasting memory.

Make something out of materials that you already have.

Gift Wrapping

We all like shiny things, but did you know what makes gift wrapping, glitter, and tinsel shiny is actually a layer of plastic and metal? This attractive layering makes it pretty much impossible to recycle. One of the best ways to reduce waste during the Holiday season is to choose more eco-friendly alternatives. You can make a real difference just by making some small changes.

Here are our tips for gift wrapping.

Re-use bits of wrapping paper you have lying around from last year. Why not make a patchwork masterpiece out of all the small unusable pieces of wrapping paper.

Avoid shiny and metallic wrapping paper. As mentioned above, this type of wrapping paper is made from a plastic film and has to go to landfill.

If you want to dress it up, use raffia, string, and paper bows. Traditional ribbons and bows are too hard to recycle and go to landfill.

Buy recycled wrapping paper that can be recycled again.

Have you tried fabric wrapping? It’s a lovely idea and can look beautiful. Just be careful not to buy new fabrics for this as textile waste is a bit of an issue. Maybe use some fabric you have around the house, or why not wrap your presents in a tea towel or something that can become part of the present.

Use gift tags made from recycled paper and reuse them as much as you can.

Why not go naked and forget the wrapping paper this year. You can have some fun with it, like hiding the gift in the house somewhere for them to find.

In summary, do your best to reuse what you have from last year, stick to paper, cardboard, and string or get inventive and use other materials around your home or garden. Buy recycled or better still go naked and don’t wrap the present at all!

Packaging

Recycling during the Holiday season includes many different types of materials. Whether it’s the product packaging or the delivery box the item arrived in, it’s important to recycle all of your packaging this Holiday season. You can reuse your delivery packaging. Fold it up, and keep it stored somewhere. This is especially useful if you plan to send presents to loved ones or sell things online. For the packaging that cannot be reused, here are our recycling tips.

Cardboard can be recycled in your curbside recycling bin.

Polystyrene packaging will need to be taken to a specialist recycler. To my understanding there are not available in Brandon and will most likely end up in our landfill.

Rigid molded plastic packaging can be recycled in your curbside recycling bin.

Packing peanuts can be recycled at a few locations or may be biodegradable. The best option is to reuse them, then recycle them; otherwise, dispose of them. Check our article for more info.

Plastic bags or other soft plastics like soft plastic packaging can be recycled at your local Co op plastic bag drop off location or at any Brandon thrift store that accept plastic bags.

If you are unsure about how to recycle other materials that I have not mentioned please check out Simply Recycle. Here’s a list of common items that you’ll find around the holidays, and what you should do with them. Taken from Simply Recycle. https://simplyrecycle.ca/holiday-recycling-tips/

Aluminum foil, Pie Plates and Trays: Garbage.
Bows and Ribbon: Reuse if possible, otherwise garbage.
Blister packaging: These are hard to open containers you’ll find consumer products in. These are accepted in your blue bin.
Cardboard: Recycle in your blue bin. Flatten boxes to save space for other recyclables.
Cellophane: Garbage.
Holiday season trees and Wreaths (real): Most municipalities run a Holiday season tree recycling program for residents. Contact your municipality for details.
Holiday season trees and Wreaths (artificial): Reuse or donate.
Decorations: Reuse or donate.
Foam packaging (Styrofoam): Garbage.
Gift bags (mesh): Reuse
Gift bags (cloth): Reuse or donate to a second-hand store.
Gift bags (paper): Recycle in your blue bin or reuse.
Gift boxes: Recycle in your blue bin or reuse.
Gift tags (paper): Recycle in your blue bin.
Greeting cards: Recycle in your blue bin.
Lights: Reuse or donate.
Plastic cards (i.e. Gift cards): Garbage.
Plastic cutlery and Plates: Garbage.
Tinsel: Garbage.
Wrapping paper (from a tree): This is also known as craft paper. Recycle this in your blue bin.
Wrapping paper (with dyes, glitter or foil): Reuse if possible, otherwise garbage.