Trim Your Holiday Waste-Line

For most of us, the holidays result in expanded waste-lines ...

…And we’re not talking the sudden inability to squeeze into your jeans due to a festive turkey feast. We’re talking trash.
During the five weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, Americans produce an extra one million tons of trash per week, compared to any other time of the year. Think about it: While celebrating all that is great in humanity, we are simultaneously trashing the Earth.
Spread the holiday spirit of goodwill and check out these ideas on how to have a wonderful, gift-giving season and still be Earth-friendly:

Tips on Reducing Your Holiday Waste

Here are some ideas for presents with panache and less trash:

• Give gift certificates.
• Make gifts. Everyone appreciates a home-cooked meal or baked goodies.
• Consider nonmaterial gifts. Tickets to a sporting event, movie, play, or concert are a real treat! Or make a charitable donation in someone's name.
• Think durable! Consider how long an item will last before you make a purchase. Often, a cheaper item will wear out long before its more durable equivalent.
• Always remember to look for items made with recycled content.

Now that you have your gifts, try these fun ways of wrapping them:

• Decorate oversized gifts with just a bow that can be used again.
• Put toy animals in a cowboy hat and wrap a bandanna around it.
• Use a knit hat to wrap a small gift, and close with a barrette or a hatpin.
• Games or toys for a child can go in a new backpack or fancy pillowcase.
• For a person who is handy, wrap a gift in a toolbox.
• Put blouses and other gifts in decorative hatboxes and tie with a hair ribbon.
• For the sewing enthusiast, wrap a gift in a fabric remnant and tie it with a piece of lace or ribbon.
• Any kitchen gift can be wrapped in a colorful dishtowel. Kitchen utensils can hang out in an oven mitt.
• Use a colorful tablecloth to wrap dishes or dining room gifts.
• For a reader, wrap a book in a reusable canvas shopping sack.
• Wrap tools for a gardener in the pocket of an apron, planter, or bucket. Hang earrings, bracelets, or necklaces right on the Christmas tree, or put them inside or around an open ornament.
• Search the attic for old family photos and mementos and give them to your favorite relative wrapped in grandma's old hat and a lace curtain.
• Creative wrapping paper substitutes include the Sunday comics or even the sports section for a athletics enthusiast. Design your own wrapping paper using paper shopping bags by decorating them with paints, crayons, or markers.
• Replace tissue paper with old lace or strips of paper shopping bags or used gift-wrap.
• If you use traditional gift-wrapping, always buy recycled-content wrapping paper.
• Make gift tags from last year's holiday cards.
• Shipping a gift? Reuse the foam peanuts from another package, or use plastic grocery bags

Food and Decorating Ideas:

• Use cloth napkins, placemats and table covers. It not only makes the day more special, but it saves paper!
• Bake your pies, and dishes in reusable pans, not disposable aluminum.
• Buy in bulk: Use large soda containers instead of many small cans.
• Recycle your decorations from year to year
• Make delicious recipes from those decorative pumpkins and gourds after the holiday. Don't just throw them away!
• Make paper mache decorations such as paper mache pumpkins. It's a great way to reuse paper as well as a fun, family activity.
         Paper Mache Recipe
         Ingredients: Flour, water, paper
        • Stir three parts water into one part flour until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
        • To make the paste last longer, add a few drops of oil of Wintergreen (optional). You can buy this oil at a drugstore.
        • Stir well and the paste is ready to use.
        • Now you need paper- newspaper works well!
        • Dip each piece of paper in the liquid mixture and apply it one piece at a time to form your shapes.
• Make decorations from edibles such as fruit. The options are endless, just use creativity!
• Make decorations from recycled materials. This is a great craft for kids.
• Make your own paper place cards and menus.

Other Ideas:

• Gift Boxes: Most gift boxes can be flattened and reused throughout the year for other items. Recycle boxes that can't be reused. We have public recycling boxes located around the County: Belleview-McVille Firehouse, Barney Road near the Fairgrounds in Burlington, Hebron (at the Airport’s Insulation Demonstration House on Limaburg Road about .5 mile from the Conner Road intersection), Ryle High School (behind stadium), Petersburg Community Center and Walton City Building.
• Packing Peanuts: Drop off extra packing peanuts at Micro Wizard (located at 10007 US 42 in Union, call 1-888-693-3729) or Mailboxes, Etc. (located at 8459 US 42 behind the Burger King, call 859-746-1182).
• Holiday Card Recycling: Holiday cards can be recycled in zillions of ways, depending on how creative you’re feeling. They can be remade into gift tags, glued onto ornaments, cut into strips and stapled to create tree garlands, made into origami shapes, and folded into bows. Holiday cards are pretty pictures printed on card stock−the possibilities are endless! And, if all else fails, we always accept cards in our recycling bins located throughout Boone County (see the list of bins under “Gift Boxes”.)
• Christmas Tree Recycling: Please CLICK to learn more about Christmas Treecycling.