Overview:
- During the holiday season, households generate up to 25% more waste, including food scraps and online shopping deliveries.
- To combat this, consumers can practice imperfect environmentalism, slow down, reduce portion sizes, use thrifted cups, swap clothes, make DIY presents, wrap gifts with reusable materials, gift experiences, and rethink kids' wish lists.
- These strategies can help reduce waste and make sustainability more achievable during the holidays.
‘Tis the season for holiday waste.
Landfills are already the country’s third-biggest source of the greenhouse gas methane, and holidays can add to that.
Households produce up to 25% more waste from Thanksgiving to New Year’s with the extra food scraps and additional online shopping deliveries this giving season generates.
But who has time to focus on sustainability during such a chaotic time of year?
(Like we’re not stressed enough.)
So we put the question to our panelists from Walking Lightly, Make Food Not Waste and Arts & Scraps during our recent webinar “Consumerism, waste & the holidays.”
Did we miss any? Be sure to share the strategies you’re implementing at home so we can pass along to our readers. This takes all of us.
1. Embrace ‘imperfect environmentalism’
You may have heard of “zero-waste,” but Walkingly Lightly’s Tessa Benziger says the widely used term is more about producing less, instead of absolutely none.
“It’s about just a mindset shift to being more aware of our consumption habits and the impact of those on the environment and other humans,” Benziger told the live virtual audience.
So shed any guilt you may have about not being able to do it all—you’re one member of a larger community and every single contribution adds up.
“Our individual impacts collectively can add up to a pretty large collective change, so low-waste kind of factors into imperfect environmentalism,” Benziger said.
2. Take it slow
Ang Adamiak of Arts & Scraps encouraged looking at just one area of your traditional holiday celebrations that could be greened up.
“Whether it’s packaging or how you work with your tree, or whatever it is, just pick one new sustainability practice for each year, and those will grow over time,” she said.
3. Start in the back of your pantry
To cut back on the big greenhouse gas-emitter of food waste, Danielle Todd of Make Food Not Waste suggested taking stock of your cupboards and freezer before you shop for that big holiday meal.
“A lot of times we put stuff in there and we forget about it,” she said.
So venture to the back of those shelves and explore your scrappy, creative side.
4. Lighten your cooking load
Take an extra moment to evaluate if what you’re dishing up is too much for your guests to eat.
“Don’t be afraid to make your portion sizes a little bit smaller. If you’re used to making the giant green beans or the giant serving of mashed potatoes, be comfortable cutting down on that a little bit,” Todd said.
She also mentioned something we didn’t think about before, which is considering if anyone at your dinner table is on medication that could reduce their appetite.
Check out Make Food Not Waste’s tips for help calculating portions — with or without leftovers.
Additional tip: Compost your food scraps, whether at home or through a service.
5. Go for thrifted over disposable cups
Oh, the red Solo cup – the bane of our holiday existence.
If you’re hosting, we loved Benziger’s idea of picking up a variety of unique glasses from a thrift store instead of single-use cups. It helps guests keep better track of their drink, plus they’re affordable, reusable, and double as quirky party favors.
“They’re cheaper than the Solo cups, and people can take them home,” she said.
5. Opt to swap (not shop) for a new (or cheesy) holiday outfit
Before clicking check out on your latest online shopping haul, Adamiak suggested we look to our friends for some seasonal fashion.
“Lots of us want to wear, like, fun holiday clothes, instead of going and buying something new, get a bunch of friends together and do a holiday swap,” she said.
6. A unique DIY present for kids
Let kids literally make their own fun with an old board game and some reusable materials.
“You can use stuff that’s already in your house and put together a bundle of stuff for a kid to invent their own board games. So it can be anything from small plastic items that are fun—I found a bag of like small plastic ducks,” Adamiak said.
Paint over the branding of a secondhand game or one you no longer use and let kids transform it into their own creation. Check out a local thrift store or Arts & Scraps of course if you’re not finding what you need at home.
7. Use wrapping materials hiding in plain sight
Instead of buying glittery and shiny wrapping paper that can’t be recycled, use materials like fabric scraps, brown paper bags, or even newspapers to wrap your gifts.
Benziger’s own kids color on the wrapping she uses to give it a personal touch. Or she suggested adding on natural elements like dried oranges or greenery to make it festive.
Additional tip: Make it a game and offer a prize (or applause) to the person with the most creative sustainable wrap job, Adamiak said.
8. Give the gift of an experience
“One of my favorites is gifting experiences over gifting things,” Benziger said.
She encouraged Planet Detroiters to consider giving gift cards for movies or dining out, passes to the zoo or a class at Walking Lightly, for example.
“And then we’re spending quality time, which is, you know what we really all want at this time of year anyway,” Benziger said.
9. Reframe your kids’ wish lists without feeling like the Grinch
It can be hard to buy less when kids are hoping for stacks of presents under the tree. (We’ve got Santa-believers too, so we get it.) But Benziger shared a strategy that she implements in her home.
“When the kids are kind of writing out wishlists, we have them write down something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read,” she said.
Watch our webinar for more tips on cutting back waste this holiday season and to learn how Walking Lightly, Make Food Not Waste and Arts & Scraps are working to make sustainability more attainable.