During the holidays, Americans generate more waste. Changing how gifts are wrapped is one way to reduce some of it.
As the holidays race nearer, the hustle and bustle include the stress of finding the perfect gift and, for some, a nagging feeling of overconsumption and excess.
The amount of waste produced by Americans between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day increases by 25%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, amounting to an estimated increase of a million pounds a week of thrown-away food, packaging and products.
One contributor to overflowing garbage cans is gift wrap.
“What we wrap the gift in sort of comes in at the end, and people often don’t have enough time to consider sustainability,” Jay Kosa said. Kosa is one of the co-executive directors at RE Sources, a nonprofit organization focused on protecting the Salish Sea region’s environment and communities.
The familiar mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle” can help with the overload.
Reduce
Dave Bennett, communications manager at the Washington State Department of Ecology, suggests reducing the need for wrapping paper altogether this season by buying items that don’t need to be wrapped.
From home-cooked meals and tickets to a show or a road trip, experiences can turn gifts into memories.
“There are a lot of alternatives to a physical gift and, in the long run, spending time with the people we love is really the most important part and the most memorable part,” Bennett said.
Another way to reduce waste is to be strategic in ordering and shipping gifts. By selecting online orders to come together in one box, the amount of product used to ship can be decreased.
Bennett does the same when sending gifts to his family by putting as many gifts in one box as possible rather than sending each item separately.
Reuse and repurpose
When Bennett does have gifts to wrap, he looks for paper to reuse.
Expanded polystyrene plastic — including packing peanuts — is banned for sale and distribution in Washington state. In its place we are seeing more brown paper packaging. Bennett collects this year-round in anticipation of the holiday season. Instead of buying wrapping paper, he wraps gifts with his stockpile of brown paper.
But what about the glitz and the glam of holiday wrapping? Bennett uses twine, a wax stamper and the occasional taped-on sticker to adorn his wrapping job.
Other alternatives to the traditional decoration include using old magazines and newspapers, fabric or calendars that are about to be obsolete come the new year, Kosa suggested.
“I would encourage folks to sort of embrace your artistic talents. You may not think you have any, but the whole point of gift-giving is to be generous,” Kosa said. “And I think it’s kind of an additional gift when you spend a little time.”
Recycle
When reusing or reducing isn’t an option, knowing how to shop sustainably may be the answer.
Wrapping paper in stores often says “sustainable” or “compostable” on the labels. According to Bennett, that isn’t always the case.
In Washington, waste is managed on a local level and practices can change between districts and communities. The only way to know if particular wrapping paper is recyclable in a given community is to check with the local waste station or look up the item at Washington Recycles. 1-800-RECYCLE is a hotline where members of the community can reach their local waste station or find stations that will take their recyclable items.
Another option is using companies such as Ridwell, a Seattle-based subscription company that will pick up harder-to-recycle items from people’s doorsteps. Service areas include communities in Whatcom and Skagit counties — Anacortes, Bellingham, Birch Bay, Blaine, Burlington, Ferndale and Mount Vernon. During the holiday months, they also see an increase in the materials they receive.
“Waste begins at consumption. As you buy stuff, oftentimes you need to get rid of it,” Ryan Metzger, Ridwell CEO, said.
Materials collected by Ridwell are recycled or reused by companies who, for example, turn plastic film into decking boards — sending less plastic to landfills.
Seasonal decorations and holiday lights are among items they collect during January. In Whatcom County, holiday lights are also recyclable curbside.
Another resource is the Waste Wise Guide from Whatcom County’s Sanitary Service. However, if a user is left unsure of whether or not to recycle something, they are advised to put it in the trash.
“Sometimes the option you’re left with is to throw things away and that’s better than what we are increasingly calling wish-cycling,” Kosa said.
Wish-cycling is when an item that cannot be recycled is put in the recycling bin. When that happens, it can contaminate the items that are recyclable and cause more problems than solutions.
Metzger encourages people to think more consciously about wrapping paper this season and to avoid materials that aren’t recyclable.
“It’s certainly the most wonderful, but also the most wasteful time of the year,” Metzger said.
— by Margaret Baumgartner