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

For example, instead of a ribbon, use a compostable string or twine with a cut stick, eucalyptus cutting or fir branch stuck into it. It’s a rustic look that will hold up even if you tie everything up well in advance. Alternatively, place something less durable, such as flowers or berries, before presenting the gifts.

Don’t Forget the Cassette!

The last thing you want to do is make all those adjustments and destroy it using standard plastic tape that can’t be recycled. Sellotape now offers plastic-free version 100 percent plant-based and fully compostable from the popular line. Alternatively, consider paper-based options like washi tape. These often come in beautiful patterns, which can help jazz up plainer brown paper.

Send fewer cards or go digital

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

This helps with the fantastic digital options that can now be emailed to friends and family, completely eliminating waste and sending at the last minute when it’s too late to mail anything. For a bigger environmental win, make an extra effort to discuss with your loved ones in advance whether you’re going the digital route.

If you can’t bear to break family tradition, then make sure you choose your cards as carefully as you choose your wrapping paper. Avoid glitter and foil and look for recyclable cards. Even better – look for those made from post-consumer recycled materials. You can even buy cards related to seeds and boxes to plant!

Of course, you can only control the cards you send. If you buy some cards that can’t be recycled, save and cut out the parts with holiday symbols to reuse as gift tags for next year.

If you have one, choose a real Christmas tree

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

Fake trees, on the other hand, are made from non-recyclable materials and only end up in the landfill when the time to spread Christmas cheer is over. The Carbon Trust It estimates that you would need to reuse artificial wood seven to 20 times (depending on its size) to offset the carbon footprint created by manufacturing, packaging and shipping it. When you buy that real wood (if you haven’t already), be sure to buy something locally grown, which is a more sustainable option because it doesn’t have to be shipped far away.

Go DIY on decorations

The same rules apply when decorating your tree and your home. Plastic and foil are a no-no and being creative is the best way to cut waste. For great DIY ideas, I’ll send you to YouTube, which is full of DIY holiday decorating tutorials: paper garlands, hanging paper dreidels, salt dough decorationsa DIY Kwanzaa Lanternand earns more points. These decorations won’t stand the test of time in storage, but once the holidays are over, they’re completely recyclable and compostable, meaning you can consciously change the color theme every year.

Store-bought holiday crackers—those cardboard tubes you pull open at both ends—should be avoided. They traditionally use glossy and shiny materials, which make them non-recyclable, like cards and wrapping paper. And that’s before considering the awful, often plastic gift that will find its way into the trash almost immediately.