One of my childhood memories of Christmas Day is opening up presents in the morning and my Dad cleaning up the wrapping paper as soon as possible so that our living room could retain some sense of normalcy, rather than a wrapping paper war zone.
If you have children or a large family at home, it can be chaotic to get through present opening and try to clean up in time to get a big meal started. Like most things, it’s helpful to have a plan of attack to deal with all of that holiday present waste. I recommend having a checklist of what goes where, especially if you have kids, as you can get them involved with sorting everything with you!
Start with things that can be reused – ribbon, bows, gift bags and boxes are all easily reused – have dedicated boxes or storage bins for these items, and have them at the ready on the big day so that you can put them away neatly. If you’re a person who carefully unfolds gift wrap so that it can reused, take the tape off and fold it up nicely. Even if you don’t plan to reuse it for wrapping other gifts, you can use wrapping paper for craft purposes – you can make envelopes and decorations for cards using the wrapping paper and some glue or tape.
Have a checklist of what makes wrapping paper recyclable vs. garbage. Quick tips: if the wrapping paper has foil, metallics, glitter, bumpy textures or other adornments, it is NOT recyclable. If it is made of plain paper, even if there are designs on it, it is recyclable. Do your best to remove tape, before putting it in the recycling bag, but it’s not the end of the world if you forget. Never put ribbon or long stringy bits in the recycling – these damage and can even fully shut down recycling plants, which is bad news for the system.
If you’ve received items in really nice reusable bags or containers from family or friends, ask if they’d like them back. They will likely want to reuse them over and over again to give gifts. If they don’t want it back, make sure you plan to reuse them next year and pass on the good reusable vibes to someone else you love.
For more information on what wrapping paper can be recycled, check out this helpful page: https://www.mollymaid.com/practically-spotless/2019/december/what-wrapping-paper-can-be-recycled-/
For information on general holiday waste in Edmonton, click here: https://www.edmonton.ca/programs_services/garbage_waste/holiday-waste-recycling.aspx
YEG Trash Talk 