The holidays are filled with magic and nostalgia, and for many of us, gifts wrapped or packaged in waste. There are dozens of ways to sustainably wrap the surprises you gift to your family and friends, but what do you do with the waste from the gifts you receive?

We have a few creative solutions for what to do with your holiday scraps this year, and hopefully for many years to come!

Holiday Card Originals: For some, holiday cards are a keepsake meant to be saved! For others, after the holidays are over, the cards may get thrown away or recycled, only to have the cycle repeat itself the following year. Before just tossing those cards, cut what you can from them to make festive tags for future holiday gifts!

Bubble Wrap Recycling: Most gift buying is done online these days, meaning we’re often left with packing materials like bubble wrap or air pillows! Though these items cannot be easily recycled, they can be reused! Check with your local package shipping center to see if they accept donations for these types of packing materials.

Convert That Cardboard: Have you heard the joke about millennials not being able to throw out a good box? Well… cardboard is versatile and can be reused in a multitude of ways! It is easy to recycle, can be composted, used as a weed barrier in your garden and even shredded to serve as an environmentally friendly packing material.

Save the Tissue: Tissue paper used to add beauty and bulk to bagged gifts can be carefully folded and reused for another gift later on! Tissue paper can also be recycled in most facilities, as long as it does not contain foil or glitter. Be sure to check your local recycling rules before putting your tissue paper in the bin.

Swimming in Gift Bags: Similarly, utilizing gift bags instead of wrapping paper makes it incredibly easy to keep and reuse bags for decades to come! One of our staff members shared that a particularly ugly gift bag has been reused in their family for years and has become a decade-long inside joke!

The amount of waste entering our landfills and environment is a pervasive problem, but creative solutions make mitigating our impact a little more affordable, fun and sustainable for our busy lives. The holiday season only amplifies the waste we produce. Arming ourselves with a plan to creatively utilize the extra waste, we can rest, relax and enjoy our holidays to the fullest.

Learn more about our conservation programs and how you can get involved.

Published December 8, 2023