Reducing Festive waste

During the festive season, unnecessary food and gifts can generate large amounts of waste, which can be avoided. On average, 30% more rubbish is generated during the festive period, most of which is destined for the landfill due to its unrecyclable nature. There are alternatives and easy ways families can reduce waste while still providing the same festive experience.

Here are three easy ways to reduce that ever-increasing waste over the holiday season. Every bit you do helps to stop the generation of unnecessary waste.

Food waste

New Zealanders waste around 8.6% of their weekly food budget which adds up to 157,389 tonnes of food over the year. This is far worse over the holiday season when people purchase more food to treat their families and end up throwing large quantities of leftovers away. Food waste has significant environmental and economic impacts as food production takes up lots of finite land and water resources along with releasing greenhouses gases when decomposing in the landfill.

When planning for the festive season, make sure to plan out the family dinners and, if the family festive get-together is a potluck, plan who brings what so there aren’t large portions of one food item that won’t get fully eaten. Plan out the number of people coming so the portions of food brought can be adjusted to suit the number of people.

Leftovers are always an inevitable situation when talking about family dinners, hopefully planning out the family gathering will reduce waste but the remaining food should be looked after and properly stored so that it remains fresh and can provide a low-effort meal the next day. Love food Hate Waste has some great ideas.

Purchase Alternate Gifts

Present-day gifts have evolved into plastic toys and games, many of these toys barely get used. For gifts, this festive season gives someone a special experience rather than a physical present. Gifting an experience generates little to no waste and will still provide an amazing gift that could be more memorable. This can be gifted in an envelope with the experience inside, still providing the excitement of opening a present, with less impactful waste.

Some examples of an experience that could be gifted are surfing lessons, Waitomo caves visits, bungee jumping, winery tours, jet boating, etc. These all provide an awesome gift that anyone can enjoy.

Wrapping

Wrapping paper creates a lot of waste that can be unrecyclable due to the plastic coating in the wrapping itself. Alternative ways of wrapping gifts can be done sustainably and still provides the excitement of opening a present. Using newspaper, cardboard boxes, unneeded packaging from boxes, traditional brown paper or childrens paintings from kindy or school are all alternative suggestions for gift wrapping. Using ribbons or rope are also a way of wrapping gifts without using plastic sticky tape which cannot be recycled.

Recycled Festive Decorations

The holiday season is an exciting time of year for families, a time to come together and decorate the tree and your home with festive decorations, appendages, and hangings – from Santa Clauses Reindeer to stars and racoons. Instead of buying new decorations how about asking family members to share some family favourites. You can visit local op shops and recycle centres like The Junction to get some reused and recycled decorations for your home. You can even make some decorations from items around your home. Check out some of these ideas like a recycled magazine Christmas tree.