How to Sustainably Clean Up After the Holidays
Hey Siri, play “New Year’s Day” by Taylor Swift
So, speaking of wrapping supplies, as I was rocking my baby back to sleep tonight I got to thinking about how I was going to organize my life home again once December 26th rolled around (who doesn’t? 🙃). I was consolidating and organizing gifts I’ve bought last night to prepare them for The Wrapping and ended up with a few piles- plastic bags, cardboard boxes, and brown paper bags. Since I needed to make decisions on how to sustainably dispose of just these items today, it made me think about how to sustainably clean up after the holidays! Just what should I do about all the post-Christmas waste?
I know there will be a lot of wrapping paper, ribbons (although I’m only using paper Ikea ribbon this year), bows, boxes, tissue paper, cards, and more to sort. My family has historically crumpled up everything as unwrapping progresses and taken it all to the trash or recycling can. But this year, in my home, I want to do things different and better- for the Earth and my daughter’s future. I want to recycle as MUCH as possible, hopefully keeping almost everything out of the landfill. But is that actually obtainable?
In order to accomplish this, thoughtful consideration is needed before the holiday. What kind of wrapping paper are you going to use? Will it include plastic? Are you buying all new wrapping supplies? New bows? Ribbon? Gift bags, and tissue paper? If so, if you’re an eco-conscious consumer, choose items that are recyclable or compostable. I thought most wrapping paper was recyclable but it sadly turns out that’s not the case at all.
When I started looking into best practices for how to properly dispose of waste post holidays I came across an article that was so comprehensive, descriptive, and thorough. I learned SO much from it and think you will too. To not share it with you would be doing everyone a massive disservice! Please go read this right now then come back and comment something new that you learned about post-holiday clean up!
