Question of the Week: How will you handle holiday waste?
2008 December 29
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One of the “gifts of the season” we usually overlook is the amount of STUFF we have left over – food scraps, dead batteries, old fir trees, and more. But most of these things can be recycled or reused in some way, or at least disposed of properly.
How will you handle holiday waste?
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Wrapping, plastics, etc will be recycled in single stream by our township. Christmas tree will be chipped and offered as mulch by township in their program to recycle garden and lawn waste.
Everything recycled in our own compost or at recycle center.
We don’t have much in scrap. We eat leftovers – all of them. We use bags instead of wrapping paper (except for the 2 small kids) and reuse them again and again – including as much of the tissue paper as possible – if it is even used (including repairing when necessary). The tree is recycled by the city for mulch. Rechargeable batteries, until they are no good and then to the recycling center. Our kitchen has a row of recycle bins that are labeled. Christmas lights are not kept on overnight – and we are buying LEDs now that the sales are on for future years. We look forward to more ideas from others.
I work for one of Covanta Energy’s Biomass Power Plants. We started a program called “Make your Xmas Renewable.” We allow the community to drop off Christmas trees at our site. We will use the trees as renewable fuel for our Biomass Power plant.
Just another way Covanta makes energy from waste….
We tried to decrease the amount of waste this year. We saved last year’s gift bags and wrapping paper. We went to a Potluck Christmas Party & each of the guests wrapped a plate to go at the end. We gave fewer gifts with lots of packaging. We use a fake Christmas tree so no waste there. This holiday season brought so many lessons for the whole world. I’m lucky to have what I do so reducing what I waste is in the forefront of my mind.
We will keep our tree up until sometime towards the end of January, then cut it up and use it for firewood. All leftover food scraps get composted, all dead batteries get recycled, and all holiday tins/gift boxes/gift bags that are still nice-looking get saved to be re-used next year! I have a large family, so it is very handy to save these, especially if the design on them is generic and I can use them for birthdays or anniversaries.
We will recycle as much of the gift wrapping paper and boxes as possible. The Christmas tree will most likely be placed (not dumped) in my parent’s backyard (with permission) so it can biograde in their forested upland/wetland to create more build up the soils and groundcover material. (Instead of the tree being burned on a beach with the rest of the Christmas trees!)
We had Christmas in PA and they don’t recycle (have curb-side pickup) soda/beer cans/bottles – people just throw them away! There’s no incentive (or fine) to recycle! This should be fixed!!
I’ll burn my Xmas tree in the back yard, and maybe throw on excess cardboard boxes. But I won’t throw anything plastic on the fire, because that creates toxins including dioxin. One should never burn plastics!
Nearly every holiday season has become a chance to clean out Mom’s basement. I am very interested in knowing what people do with old cheap particle-board furniture, and old blankets and clothes with holes and stains. I argue that someone can reuse the furniture, even if it’s less-than-par. I’m not sure about the linens, though. There are only so many uses for rags. Does anyone make rag rugs (locally, preferred) anymore?
Christmas Tree & Decorations: artificial — stored away for use next season.
Wrapping: bows, tissue paper, & shirt boxes are saved for reuse. Foil-faced wrapping paper & torn boxes are broken down, folded and placed in the trash [approximately one kitchen-sized trash bag for a family of five (5)].
Left-over food is refrigerated for future meals. Food scraps are placed in the trash for disposal.
We recycle all of the boxes, paper and plastic. All left over food goes to the compost pile. We have a fake tree so that just gets boxed up.
Recycle everything. Wrapping paper will be reused if possible. Otherwise recycled. Bows reused. Boxes will be reused or recycled. Xmas tree will be put in yard to provide nesting opportunities for birds and eventually composted.
I use Every single day to Fullfill my Dreams n Achieving my Goals…. so Holiday dont matter……..Thank U….
I am a big fan of Freecycle. It is a great way to pass along those items that we can’t use anymore, but don’t really lend themselves to being donated. I have given away everything from a large computer desk to an almost full bottle of fabric softener! It is a great resource, and keeps many, many things out of the landfill.
I will donate my tree to the local arboretum for bird shelter. Plus, I use/reuse gift bags as much as possible. When using wrapping paper, I give the larger pieces to the preschool, who recycles the paper for cutting activities with the children.
reduce reuse recycle1
I try not to buy stuff with excessive packaging. I save tissue paper and gift bags to use next year. About a month before the holidays I start saving small boxes to reuse for gift wrapping. Wrapping paper gets recycled, as well as, packaging. I am happy that my kids are getting older and not every toy comes wired to that clear plastic. Old batteries get recycled too, although, we are having less and less of those too because I started to invest in rechargeables. Our tree gets reuse in the spring. We delimb it and use the trunk for our May pole. Food gets eaten! by us or by our chickens. I save the holiday cards we receive every year to use them the next year for package tags and when the kids were younger I would put tape on the back of them and let them stick them to the walls as part of our decorating.
We had stopped wrapping gifts as a start. Our city has a recycle program to handle most of the balance. Leftovers are divided as people leave, I have a grandson living with me for the balance of the food.
Tree to city program for chipping and composting christmas trees. Mulch generated from program is made available free to residents for fixed period of time.
Batteries to city hazardous waste program.
Paper and cardboard to city recyling program.
Items not accepted by city program to Ecology Action (nonprofit recycling facility).
Old calendars and cards to local school programs for art projects.
All carboard went into the recycling bin. Since I don’t wrap presents, there is no wrapping paper going into the waste. The tree we recycle at the end of the season by turning it into mulch.
Do you mean how I handle holiday waste as in the notion that the holiday season is all about consumerism and consumption? I handle that by not giving in to the pressures of buy buy buy, and give gifts that have a longer impact than simple possessions. I help cook in a soup kitchen, make notebooks for friends and family using paper that has been used only on one side, knit gloves and perform tasks like cleaning out a neglected garden so that in the spring, my friends and family can enjoy their own homegrown fruits and veggies. These things tend to not generate waste but instead reduce waste during the holidays, in terms of my time, my money, and the traditional garbage generated during the holidays.
We do not overlook STUFF. We don’t do real trees but we do have a tree. We do a real wreath and recycle to city for composting after cutting out the metal for recycling.We recycle or compost everything else. We take what we can eat and eat what we take until it is gone. P.S. We are not obese.
it’s important what do we do during week . if we spend things what we need but not over .we have little waste and very little recycle because nature recycle many things . SINGLE our problem is : buy things that we don’t need it in TOMORROW or a next week.
especially in about foods and clothes and in this century in electronic utensil .
human is in the earth for life for self and other . if we want best for our self we must want best for other (human, nature,animal …. ).
NOW give things that you don’t need it. for rescue the earth.
For the most part, we try to recycle what we can, including tissue paper, wrapping and bows. Some of the waste paper we use as fire starter, but that is something that we have to be careful with as well. Boxes are broken down and recycled at the house for use with storage, and for future presents. Our tree spends the winter out on the deck in the snow for the birds and critters to play with until it gets hauled to our burn pile for the annual brush burn in the spring. I was impressed with the smaller amount of waste this year than in years past…with the exception of a couple of toys where the packaging is outrageous, things weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they would be!
Reusing, Recycling, Composting, Regifting :)
All the Holiday Bags that were used for gifts, will be stored for future reuse. Wrapping paper that can’t be reused, will be recycled along with the boxes and packaging materials items came in. Alas, the plastic windows on the boxes, the plastic straps that held toys in place, the plastic bags that candy was wrapped in, will be sent to the landfill. But food will either be shared in my office or composted if it can’t be eaten. Our recycling bins will be overflowing, and care will need to be taken that animals don’t find our compost more appealing than usual – but our trash can level will remain unchanged.
We have a woodstove for heat and live in a cabin in a national forest. The tree and wrapping will be used to heat the cabin. Batteries, unfortunately, have no alternative other than to be thrown away.
We freeze baked goods to extend the enjoyment of them into January and beyond. Eat or compost leftovers. Use very little wrapping paper- use the wrapping paper that is used for fire starter. For gifts, try to use bags that can be reused again and again. We feed the tree to the goats- gets recycled into great fertilizer.
Extravagance is the most effective concept that this,harmful for us and for the world.I’m trying to use my stuffs logically,i mean i pay attention using recycling stuffs.if we pay attention on this,using lifetime of stuffs remain and we can use stuffs better.if we want to more suitable life we must be careful about this subject.
We were very conscience this year. We will of course re-cycle the tree at the local park progam. We put the gingerbread house outside for the squarles. We opened gifts and boxes and bags and bows extra carefully and I have saved all of it for next year, I have more tissue paper and wrap then I did when I started. We wrapped many gifts in pizza boxes and washed out potatoe chip bags. Some gifts we tied with string and brown bags the kids colored and painted on. We had no extra food. We gave it away to all the company. We made Christmas cards this year from old ones that everyone loved… so same for next year and we are using old cards as thank you notes to our family and freinds. We had one small bag of garbage this year, when we useually have three or four. We are very happy about that.
Hi. I live in PA and wanted to clarify on this issue. We do have a state-wide recycling law. What or if you have to recycle is based on the population size of your community. The municality that I used to live in was only 200 people, so we did not have a curb-side recycling program. To counteract that, the municipality set up recycling bins in the school parking lots. I now live in a larger community that must recycle plastic, glass, and paper. It’s not that people in PA do not recycle; it’s just the way that the state law is written.
Our village recycles Christmas trees as well.
I do many of the things already listed: reuse, reduce and recycle. My parents and I shopped for each other at the local thrift stores, white elephant sales, etc.–they can use the money. The salvation army also donates unsold textiles, including stained and torn items to rag makers.
Additionally, i save all holiday cards and use them the following year for gift tags (cutting the picture out, etc.)
My evergreen swags, trees, etc. get cut up and used as shelters from ice/heavy snow for my perennial shrubs.
We purchased gift cards this year so we wouldn’t have any waste. The few gifts we did give, went into nice bags so they could be reused. The gifts I asked for were for people to donate money to homeless shelters to help others. I have been trying to promote “less is more” to my family.
yes but for how lomg
It is only waste if not used properly buriel is not the answer
incineration with proper controls gererationg electricity ect methane gas by product hydogen gas fuel cells tech is here old tires in Ca OIL IN TEXAS UNTAPPED
Well I segregate cans,bottles,plastic bottles,news papersand empty boxes then sell it to the junk shop then donate the money to church.I bury my decomposting garbage to my garden to serve as fertilizer.
a volcano eruption will pollute the atmosphere for 100000 years where man may do it in a billion years do the math
We don’t have any extra trash. The few gifts that are wrapped are put in our own holiday bags, reused from year to year, a family tradition like the stockings we made years ago. We compost the smallest parts of the greenery, and use larger branches and trunks for garden stakes and trellises. As to packaging from stores, I remove some packaging upon leaving the store–if no trash bin by the entrance and exit, I’ll ask an employee to dispose of it for me. This may send a message to manufacturers if enough people do it, but in any case we have a right to inspect the merchandise closely enough to make sure we don’t have to make another trip to return it.
I am going to send my holiday trash to a plasma incinerator because this incinerator heats trash so hot that it breaks it down into basic elements and is over 99% efficient in destroying any pollutants. Most of you that have been taught science by coaches or certificated public school teachers may not have heard of this process. It basically does away with landfills and pollution of any kind and as a bi-product the water used to cool this incinerator can be used as steam to produce electricity. Garbage to electricity and no pollution. Why has the green people not told us about this?
Think for yourself,
Jimmy McCurry-Fighting Texas Aggie Class of 1978
Well, to start off with I do not use a Christmas Tree. I am waiting until I have my own property where I can grow an evergreen in the front yard and decorate that each year. My child and I have decided that we might like the migratory birds such a tree would attract and we could set up a camera trap for the birds to take pictures during the season. Also, any jars or aluminum cans that are used during holiday cooking, etc we wash and save for crafts. We also save wrapping paper and tissue paper either to reuse or for crafts and we always reuse the gift bags. The boxes are broken down and sent to the nearest recycling center to be recycled and reused. We always eat leftovers, and when the leftovers just aren’t doing it for us, we use them to feed Fiona and Benny, our two dogs that like the eat just about anything. I do have a question, however, what DO we do with dead batteries??? What is the best solution? I know to buy rechargeable and environmentally friendly batteries, but as far as the old dead batteries, I’m not 100% sure about how to deal with them in an environmental fashion, so any tips would be handy. Oh yes, and those plastic containers for like Silk Yogurt or Smart Balance or Toffuti are all reuseable as tupperware containers.
I have been recycling batteries for several years. California mandates the recycling of batteries. I have an artificial tree, so I re-use it year after years, working on 5 years now. I have continued to expand the recycling program at work by adding (9) additional bottles and can recycling containers. If you live in California log onto bottlesandcans.com and get a free starter kit and literature/poster to promote recycling. CA also mandates the recycling of electronic waste. The schools all have roll off dumpsters for recycling paper and cardboard. Hazardous materials must be taken to a recycling center. The city also picks up recyclables and there is a recycling center in every town to sell back your glass, plastic and cans. The city picks up trees for composting. There are lots of things each of us can do to reduce our footprint on our planet.
For years I have been doing many of the things listed by others on this blog. I recycle, reuse, and reduce absolutely everything possible, from the wrappings, boxes, and cards to trees and tree trimmings. I worked hard to make it a “natural” holiday season with my “green” endeavors. My adult children are following in my footsteps, evident from my visits to their homes over the past few weeks. One of my daughters donated food and clothing to local charities in lieu of the buying frenzies of the past, thereby saving fuel, and plastic/paper from going to the dump by those who do not recycle. She informed others beforehand of her intentions to instead give the gift that she would have given them to those in need. She has invited her siblings and me and her friends to join her next year.
I sure wish you lived near me. But I totally agree. Helping someone with their garden chores and working at a soup kitchen are great gifts for the receivers and for you as well. Keep up the great work.
My husband and I don’t buy much for each other but do for Toys for Tots and folks from church. So our personal trash level remains the same. We compost and save bags for next year. I add our cards to the ones at work that we donate to different organizations. Leftovers are always distributed and gobbled up over the week either by people or pets. Let’s look forward to a new year where everyone tries to do their part like everyone on this blog are already doing. Thanks everyone.
We too do many of the things mentioned above including using (and reusing) gift bags, saving and reusing paper, bows, ribbons and gift tags, and recycling cardboard, plastic, and the paper that we can’t reuse. We also minimize wrapping if the item is large. Our Christmas tree gets added to our winter backyard brush pile that provides shelter for the birds.
May I ask in what national forest you live? Do you get to love there because you work there? I would love to love in a national forest but I thought ordinary citizens weren’t allowed to do that. I also burn my wrapping paper and reuse gift bags. I try to never buy plastic because of its “forever in a landfill.” I prefer to give gifts of homemade suet cakes. The recipients and the birds love them!
Our newspaper has an online version with a “Take My Stuff” section – people post all kinds of things. THe adage “one man’s trash is another’s treasure” is very true!
I know an artist locally that recycles unusable clothes into weavable projects, like rugs, etc. Contact an art school or textile program at a community college and see what they can do for you.
We always have used rechargeable batteries, and when my car battery just died, it too got recycled. My tree was fresh cut so lasts longer and will be used for an outside tree with popcorn garlands and peanut butter suet balls for the birds. Our leftovers, what little there are, go into brown paper bags with our coffee grinds and into the garden for later composting. Any food that is animal friendly goes to the woods (but in different locations each time so they don’t become dependent).
When my tree finally loses its needles, it will be used upstream of a creek to keep the dirt road from impacting the water quality.
Wrapping Paper:
We’ve become more cost conscious with this each year. All bows and ribbons are re-used year to year. Wrapping paper is re-used each year until no longer usable and then recycled. We have tried to reduce the amount of cardboard and packaging in the gifts we purchase and make sure we remove that in advance and get it into the recycle bins before Christmas day.
Batteries:
We’ve switched to rechargeable batteries about 20 years ago and keep recharging them. Replacements are needed every few years and the spent batteries are sent to the HHW roundups.
Foods:
We really are quite good at eliminating waste from the table. Scraps that don’t make it onto a plate go to the compost pile.
Tree:
We’ve had an artificial tree for many years primarily due to the fire risks when our children were small and realized the cost savings later after a few years cost avoidance.
Exterior Lights:
We probably won’t switch lights to lower cost energy efficient for many more years mainly due to the cost.
Holiday waste is a huge issue that rarely gets enough attention. Holiday waste also includes the excessive newspaper adds that begin around Thanksgiving and usually run through the New Year’s Holiday.
All anyone can do is recycle, recycle, recycle! Most all holiday waste is recyclable. Recycling takes a committed effort from the consumer and the local, state and federal levels. Recycling begins with the consumer. Just take a few minutes a week and sort you trash.
Place a recycle container next to the trash can, I do. I personally recycle approximately 70% of my weekly trash load. It does not lower my monthly trash bill, but I have some peace of mind that I have contributed.