OHIO — Once Christmas has come and gone, there may be a lot of clean up left behind, from taking down Christmas decorations to cleaning up the flurry of gift wrap.
Instead of tossing it in the trash and having potentially hazardous chemicals seep into landfills and further polluting the planet, there are ways to be more environmentally friendly this holiday season.
December causes the most waste compared to other months of the year. An 2021 analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity showed Americans generated 23% more waste in December compared to other months, and during December, each person generates 36 more pounds of waste. The center said that's equivalent to everyone tossing out seven computer monitors.
Nationally, the U.S. generates 5.8 million tons more waste in December compared to any other month, which is equivalent to the weight of 28,713 Boeing 747 airplanes, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
Before tossing everything in the trash and have things go straight into a landfill, there may be ways to recycle or reuse items from the holiday. The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District gave the following tips to help the environment:
Local solid waste districts or city service departments may take lights, even broken and tangled ones, for year-round recycling. Call to see what their hours are.
Other resources for recycling lights include:
- HolidayLEDS, which is a free light recycling program that allows people to ship lights to the company for recycling between Oct. 1 and Feb. 28.
- Christmas Light Source accepts holiday lights all year-round. Proceeds from this recycling program benefit the Marine Toys for Tots program.
- Retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's and Walmart collect lights for a few weeks during the winter holidays. Check with your local store.
The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District said 10 million trees end up in landfills each year. Instead, use them as a way to help the environment.
Many communities offer programs that help turn trees into mulch or wood chips. You can check what your community offers by calling your city service department or trash hauler.
For the communities that don't offer tree recycling, other ways to recycle include:
- Donate your tree to a local farm for animal feed
- If you have a private pond, lake or wooded area, place the undecorated tree in the area to serve as shelter or food for wildlife
- Take it to a local compost or yard waste facility
- Have it chipped for ground cover
The waste district also has more tips on disposing of other holiday greenery — click the link for more information.
Don't toss those greeting cards away just yet — instead, keep them for next year to be used as gift tags, decorations, labels or other projects.
However, if you don't think you're going to reuse, recycling them through your community's recycling program. However, if the card containers foil, ribbon, glitter or photo cards with mixed paper, don't include those in curbside recycling.
For many, opening gifts comes with someone carrying a large garbage bag ready to catch the wrapping paper. Instead, trade out that garbage bag for a recycling bag. Wrapping paper and boxes that are 100% paper can be recycled. Butcher paper, corrugated cardboard and gift bags without decorations on them can also be recycled.
If wrapping paper has foil or is sparkly or shiny, it can't be recycling and must be placed in the trash. Ribbon, tinsel, bows and things with glitter also can't be recycled.
People try their best and sometimes, it's not really what we need or want. That's OK — but instead of tossing things aside or in the garbage, there may be ways to help others with the unwanted gifts. Try donating unwanted clothes, toys, furniture, household goods, decorations or more to local nonprofits that reuse or resell items to support the community. There also may be local donation bins placed throughout your town you can also put clothes into.
And of course, if you think someone else in your circle may love the gift you received, try asking if they want it instead.
The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District said more than 130 million cell phones are thrown out each year, whether that be because they got a new one for Christmas or needed an upgrade, or whatever other reason.
Instead of tossing it in the trash, you can take it to stores like AT&T, Best Buy, Staples, Verizon or others that offers recycling services in stores. Recycling phones also prevents elements like mercury, cadmium and lead ending up in landfills.
As for other electronics, try Best Buy and Staples. You can drop them off for free.
More tips can be found here.