Some of you are still on holidays, but for some it is time to go back to routine and most likely back to work. This means cleaning up after the Christmas and getting rid of a lot of waste, but you can avoid much of the environmental problems associated with the holiday waste.
1. Fresh Christmas trees
If you purchased a fresh Christmas tree don’t send it straight to landfill. Instead get it chipped to make mulch. You can hire a chipper and use on your own garden or check with your council for tree drop-off locations where they will chip the tree for local use.
2. Artificial Christmas trees
If your Christmas tree looks like it has seen its last Christmas, remember most of it’s parts can be recycled as it is made with metal. Talk to your recycling centres to see what they can do.
3. Reuse or recycle gift packing materials
I love the fact that we got a lot of gifts in gift bags this year. Many of them look brand new and will definitely get another life next year. Cardboard boxes, bubble wrap and any packing material can be reused, but if you don’t want to reuse these materials yourself, you can take it to a shop that will reuse them. Remember, when unwrapping large gifts, save the paper for reuse. You can iron creased wrapping paper. Also, save any of the decorations, ribbons and bows.
4. Recycle old electronics
Christmas is a huge electronic gift time, but that shouldn’t mean that the older models go to landfill. My son loves playing electronic games, so we traded in his old games. It means getting store credit towards other games and often we get pre-loved games, so it is less waste. Places like EB games are great for this. Older models of electronics like TVs, computer monitors, laptops, cameras, mobile phones and other electronic items are usually still in working order, however, many end up in landfill. Electronic goods can be recycled by selling on places like eBay gumtree. Otherwise, many recycling centres will take these gadgets.
5. Donate or re-gift
Some people might feel uncomfortable about this, but sometimes we get gifts that we know we will not use. So, rather than have them gathering dust or placing them in a rubbish bin consider re-gifting to someone that will make use of them. Or donate to a charity or your local opportunity shop.
We hope these few easy tips help you out with all your waste after Christmas.
Make your New Year an earthly passionate year,
Attracta & the earthly passion