Lower Waste Holidays

If you can’t tell, Christmas and the holidays are my favorite time of year! It has so many wonderful meanings to me and I just love it so much! There are some aspects, however that are not my favorite (busyness, pressure of consumerism, the impact on the earth).

I used to be someone who tried not to think about where all our waste goes, but as I’ve continued to learn, I couldn’t ignore it, nor felt it was ethical for me to do so.

According to Stanford University, between Thanksgiving and New Years, we will generate about additional 7 million pounds of waste

My goal is not to laden you with guilt but to give simple, easy switches for those who are interested and to educate those who didn’t know. We’re all doing the best we can with the knowledge we have and when we know better, we do better! Most of us have something we could do to improve- myself included! Any step, even baby steps are great! Someday I hope to be zero waste, but at this time in my life, I’m just improving where I feasibly can. Lastly, I hope you feel empowered knowing that just you changing yours and your family’s ways can have a massive impact ❤️ Here are a few tips for a lower waste holiday season. The links are affiliate links. I have not tried the disposable options, but looked for ones with good reviews.

For Entertaining and attending parties

• Waterbottles/cups
  • You may be tempted to have plastic waterbottles or plastic cups available for them, but this is one is horrible for the environment and our health. Instead, let them use a normal glass or mason jars (one of my favorites)! If you have too many people for that, buy a compostable cup like this and have the trash out that’s just for composting. I haven’t used these, but they have good reviews. More on composting below.
• Straw
  • Ditch the disposable straw- more cost effective and eco friendly!
• Disposable plates, bowls, utensils
  • Again, it’s tempting to want to use paper/plastic plates and utensils, to forgo dishes, but again, taking an extra 20-30 min to to do the dishes each time you want to use them, goes a long way for the environment ❤️
  • Let’s say you use 20 disposable plates once a year from the time you are 20-60. That’s 40 years. If you only use 20 plates (not counting other disposable dishes, utensils, etc.), in those 40 years, just using 20 a year (extremely low ball estimate), you have contributed 800 disposable plates to the environment that will never go away. Now, let’s consider the alternate, by choosing zero waste options, you can make a significant impact on the environment!
  • If you aren’t open to dishes, these compostable ones are a better option for the environment. Though, investing in inexpensive dishes for hosting will save money and the environment in the long run
    • I have not tried these but they have good reviews. Composting is important because things that say biodegradable can’t actually biodegrade due to the facilities trash is kept in
• Napkins
  • We LOVE cloth. I can’t find ours on Amazon right now, but these look really versatile! Search 100% pure cotton napkins on amazon and there are a million beautiful options that are affordable! Make sure to get ones made with a natural fiber like 100% cotton. Even better if organic to avoid the chemicals in processing, but that can be prohibitively expensive and I don’t feel is critical here. If you’re not open to cloth, these are compostable and made of bamboo.
• Bring your dishes on glass or metal servingware. If I have to leave and there are still leftovers, I ask the host if they have a dish I could put it in. Don’t buy aluminum reusable dishes as that can be harmful to health.

Gift wrapping

• Wrapping paper
  • I love recyclable butcher paper. I like this one. It may not be tall enough though for all your needs. Just make sure you buy recyclable because not all butcher paper is recyclable
  • For clothes, forego the boxes!
• Reusable bags
  • I know some people like ones like these. While very eco friendly, I don’t see these in our future. There’s something so magical about opening a present as a child and since there are recyclable options, I have to go with that while my kids are young!
• Ribbon
  • 100% cotton or other natural fiber or omit! I like this and this
  • To add a little extra beauty, I like to add extra ornaments, bells (mini ones we already have), fresh rosemary, pine, or cedar, cinnamon sticks, etc!
• Gift tags
  • I write straight on the package, but you could also use a reusable one that you bring out year after year for your family and friends like these or a recyclable ones like these.

Grocery, clothes, and toy shopping

• Reusable bags
  • I just use ones I’ve collected through the years- beach bags, some from Trader Joe’s, some cane with purchases, some were gifted at conferences, etc! We keep some in the car and in our pantry and use to keep one in the stroller when we were in walking distance to a grocery store.
• Produce bags
  • We love these! I also love that they’re machine washable. I also keep my onions in these so they don’t shed everywhere!
  • Again, simple calculations… there are roughly 52 weeks in a year. That’s 156 a year. If you use 3 produce bags a week from 18 years old to 80 years old, that’s 9,672 in your lifetime! As mentioned above, unless they are compostable and you actually compost them, biodegradable ones are not truly biodegradable
  • Another option is to use no bag at all! Also a great choice 🙂
• Email receipt
  • Some stores offer an email receipt option. This is obviously the most eco friendly option, plus you don’t have to worry about losing it!

Advent Calendar

• Wooden one
  • My husband has such fond memories of advent calendars! I love making sure he gets to continue traditions he loves, but he and I both felt concerned over the waste and daily unhealthy treat for a month. Our solution? We found a fun advent calendar and put healthy treats in the drawers most from this post. For the ones that don’t fit, we just put a piece of paper that says they get to pick and we have a healthy stash to pick from (and recycle or reuse the paper!
  • The calendars can be really expensive, so we bought this one. It’s not the highest quality, but will do for a long time! If you can afford a nicer one though, I’d recommend one of those. As we have more children we’ll keep this for whatever kid wants it or give it as a gift and buy a big nice one for the whole family

Neighbor gifts

• Glass mason jars with 100% cotton cloth
• Stasher bag
  • I love this idea because you’re gifting someone a reusable option, but it’s honestly too expensive for us right now for neighbor gifts!

Lastly, recycle! This seems obvious, but sometimes the recycling bin gets full at times like these and it can be tempting to just toss it all in the trash especially if they only pick up your recycling every other week. Fight the urge! Set it aside out of the way until recycling day or take it to a recycling center! Don’t let convenience be more important to you than your impact on the earth ❤️

Happy holidays! May they be full of giving, love, the people who matter most, and sustainable and eco-friendly actions! Let’s not burden the earth in showing our love to others!