With tonnes of wrapping paper, decorations, food, packaging, bottles and unwanted gifts thrown out at Christmas time every year, the average Australian household is estimated to increase their waste by 30 per cent over the festive season, so 1Coast has decided to share its top tips to reduce, reuse and recycle over the holidays.
The waste management company will cover its 12 Do’s and Don’ts for a sustainable Yuletide when it hosts a virtual Don’t Waste Christmas presentation in December, with residents encouraged to tune in and learn about how they can decrease their waste.
1Coast Education Officer, Michelle Murrell, said that while exact figures weren’t available, increased waste and decreased recycling was commonplace across the Coast during the Christmas holidays.
“Kerbside pickups get bigger and in general collection loads are heavier as more waste goes into the red and yellow bins, and while the Coast is generally very good at recycling, sadly we do see recycling get worse during the festive season.
“This is why 1Coast works so hard to boost recycling messaging over the holidays,” Murrell explained.
Adding to the region’s waste woes is confusion around what holiday items can and can’t be recycled.
According to Murrell, for the Coast, the worst offenders were wrapping paper and moulded plastic linings and casings, with the former coming in several non-recyclable varieties and the latter often concealed within larger packaging headed for the yellow bin.
“With wrapping paper, the harder it is to tear the less likely it is that it’s recyclable.
“If it’s hard to tear it’s usually because it has a plastic layer and the general rule of thumb is to avoid the sparkly shiny stuff if you want to recycle.
“Moulded plastics are the big confusing one because they’re usually an additional layer of packaging inside recyclable packaging such as cardboard, so it’s important to remember to separate them,” Murrell said.
Some of Murrell’s other top tips for a sustainable Christmas covered in the 12 Do’s and Don’ts include: investing in long lasting, high quality decorations that can be used year after year; ditching traditional Christmas cards in favour of e-cards or only purchasing cards made from recycled cardboard; avoid disposable serving ware at Christmas lunch/dinner and don’t let your eyes be bigger than your belly when it comes to food shopping; and lastly for the creatives, making your own decorations, wrapping paper, cards and gifts.
1Coast’s Don’t Waste Christmas presentation will be held from 4-5pm on December 9 via Zoom.
Interested residents can book their place via 1Coast’s website.
Dilon Luke