Ideas for a Zero-Waste Holiday
At our house, Christmas is one of the biggest trash days of the year. Wrapping paper, Styrofoam, other gift and food packaging, food leftovers, and replaced electronics and batteries all contribute to the landfill. Here are some easy ideas for reducing contributions to the landfill this year: Just a little planning can make a huge difference. Adopting even one of these ideas will help!*
- Getting a lot of unwanted catalogs in the mail this time of year?. Cancel them for free via https://www.catalogchoice.org/. It may take several months to see the effect but if you do it now, next year’s junk mail will be significantly reduced. Tip: I save just the catalog cover page (which includes all the data that is needed to cancel the catalog) then stack that page by the computer until I have a few piled up – then cancel them all at once.
- Give gifts that are homemade, benefit charity or are antiques or experiences. One option is the ELCA’s Good Gifts at https://community.elca.org/ELCAGoodGifts.
- Reuse and recycle gift wrap, or use reusable gift bags, cloth tea towels or even sew your own gift bags. Avoid foiled, plastic, glitter, velveteen or raised embossing gift wrap as it usually can’t be recycled. Remember ribbon cannot be recycled (but it can be reused!). One alternative to ribbon is raffia, which can be recycled.
- If you must use disposable plates and cutlery, use paper plates and compostable silverware instead of Styrofoam and plastic. Compost when finished.
- Decorate your home with natural decorations (plants, fruit, branches, ivy, etc) and edible displays, which can be eaten or composted when you are done.
- Styrofoam requires special handling. Peanuts are often accepted at your local packaging store, such as Mailbox,etc. (The Magnolia Mailbox is always happy to receive them.). In Seattle, you can arrange for Seattle Public Utilities to pick up Styrofoam blocks for free (max 32 gallon bag), but you must arrange a separate pick up online or by calling (206) 684-3000. If you are a member of Ridwell (see below), they will pick up a huge bag of Styrofoam for $9.
- As of Jan 1 we will no longer be able to put plastic film (bags, plastic bubble mailers, bread bags, etc) in our recycling. For a small fee, Ridwell, a new company, started on Queen Anne, will pick up items from 4 categories: lightbulbs, batteries, plastic film and “threads” twice a month. In addition, theymaintain a list of rotating categories throughout the year, e.g. leftover halloween candy, broken Christmas lights, women’s work clothes, etc., that you can opt in for, and for which they have found a good home. https://www.ridwell.com/.
- Buy local/humanely raised meat, or try celebrating a meatless holiday. Freeze leftovers rather than throwing them out. Some sources for humanely raised and local turkey include:
www.HeritageTurkeyFoundation.org
www.huffpost.com/entry/heritage-turkeys-thanksgiving_n_5bd341f6e4b055bc948b78c4/amp
—Lisa Kjaer-Schade
* Primary Source: The Zero-Waste Lifestyle – Live Well by Throwing Away Less, by Amy Korst
