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Did you know Americans generate 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day? This significant increase in waste comes from people gathering for meals, hosting parties, and giving gifts. This isn’t a big surprise considering 20% of total retail sales occur during the holidays. Share the tips below with your residents to help avoid this jump in waste.
Decorations
Store-bought decorations are often made of cheap plastic that break and become trash after one use. When it comes to decorations for the home, think simple and compostable or reusable.
- Repair string lights if they no longer work. Replace with LED strands, which will last longer and save a lot in energy costs
- Choose versatile decorations that you can use for multiple occasions, such as candles and tablecloths
- Use plants, flowers, produce, seasonal greenery, pine cones, and other natural decorations
- Make paper snowflakes or other cutouts from newspaper, magazines, or other reused paper
- Consider what the best environmental options are for buying a real versus artificial tree
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Gift giving
Our culture celebrates shopping holidays such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so it’s easy to get caught up in sales and the excitement of purchasing gifts. Keep in mind: in a poll asking people what they love most about this time of the year, the number one response was time spent with family and friends and number two was the food and celebration.
Think about what you can do with friends and family rather than giving material gifts. You might find that simply spending quality time with the people you love makes you just as happy. If you enjoy giving and receiving gifts, be intentional about them. Resist the urge to buy cheaply made items and instead spend your money on gifts that will last.
- Look in secondhand stores before buying new. Can you make or purchase something made from reused or recycled materials?
- Think before you buy a new item. What is the material you are buying? Is it durable? When it breaks, will it be trash? Can it be recycled or composted?
- Give experiences, activities or memories. Offer your time and knowledge.
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Gift wrapping
Often, wrapping paper and fancy bows go straight into the trash, so reconsider how you present your gifts. Wrapping paper and bows are always trash, so instead:
- Reuse paper that you already have, like newspaper, brown paper bags, or plain tissue paper
- Tie up a gift with cotton string or reusable ribbon rather than using tape
- Opt for reusable gift bags, a fancy box, a decorative handkerchief or scarf, or even a small towel or blanket to disguise your gift
- Go unwrapped! You could hide a gift in a cabinet, closet, or different room and put together a scavenger hunt to find it
- To spruce up your presents, use natural elements like greenery, pinecones, or berries. Or save and reuse ribbons, bows, and string year after year
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Sustainable holiday checklist
Continue your sustainable lifestyle habits this holiday season by using Hennepin County’s sustainable holiday checklist. Focus on what you can manage to make meaningful progress instead of striving for perfection. Every action you take is a gift to the planet, your community, and to future generations.
You can prevent a lot of wasted food by doing some careful planning:
- Use a portion planner or recipe guide to scale the amount of food to your number of guests
- Plan for leftovers - freeze or send home with guests
- Place leftovers in a prominent spot in your fridge so they don’t get lost
- Look up how to use your leftovers in new ways
- Compost food scraps and inedible parts such as eggshells and coffee grounds
When you are shopping for ingredients:
- Avoid single-use items for food or beverages
- Serve drinks in dispensers or use returnable growlers or kegs for alcohol
Between packaging from deliveries, decorations, gift wrap, and more, the holiday season is a time when we often have a lot of stuff to get rid of. As you clean up from the holidays, follow these tips for the best ways to recycle, reuse, and get rid of common holiday items:
- Flatten and recycle cardboard boxes and packing paper at home. If you have a lot of boxes, you can bring them to a Hennepin County drop-off facility.
- Recycle cards, envelopes, and plain paper used as gift wrap. Be sure to flatten the paper before recycling to ensure it gets properly sorted at the recycling facility.
- Throw away gift wrap and cards that are glossy, shiny, or glittery.
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- Save and reuse gift bags, gift boxes, bows, ribbons, and tissue paper. Otherwise, these items should go in the trash.
- Bring non-working string lights, electronics, and batteries to a drop-off location. These items are accepted at Hennepin County drop-off facilities, or you can find additional options on the Green Disposal Guide.
- Bring plastic bags, film, shipping envelopes, and bubble wrap to a recycling drop-off location – find options on the Green Disposal Guide.
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- Remove all decorations from real trees and wreaths and bring them to a yard waste site. See the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s best management practices for holiday greenery for more information.
- Throw away tinsel and trees, wreaths, and other greenery that are flocked, covered in fake snow or glitter, or contain decorations that cannot be removed.
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 Plastics can be a hassle – they create clutter and can be confusing to recycle – plus they contribute to litter, harm water and wildlife, and have largely unknown health impacts for us. Fortunately, there’s a lot we can do to help create a plastic-free world, from learning more about plastic waste and recycling to making simple swaps to advocating for changes in your community and sharing your story with others.
Be part of the solution to reduce waste, protect water and wildlife, address climate change, and look after the health of ourselves and future generations by joining the Hennepin County Plastic-Free Challenge. Sign up opens on January 1, and the challenge runs during the month of February 2023.
Learn more, sign up, and get ready to go plastic-free at hennepinplasticfree.ecochallenge.org.
Seeking Plastic-Free Challenge partners
We are seeking partners to help increase promotion, recruitment, and engagement for the challenge. The partnership opportunity is free.
See the Plastic-Free Challenge partnership guide (PDF) to learn more, and complete the partnership form to sign up.
The multifamily recycling grant program is currently closed but will open again in early 2023. Hennepin County offers grants for multifamily properties to improve recycling and reduce contamination, prevent waste or start organics recycling for composting. Areas of focus can include organics hauling service, construction of waste enclosures or chutes, bulky waste, and waste prevention. Visit the apartment recycling web page to stay updated on the 2023 grant program launch.
In the meantime, free resources are available to Hennepin County residents to improve recycling in apartments, condos, and townhome associations. See what's available and order free resources.
Our committed staff is ready to help you start or improve recycling at your apartment or condo. We can help you assess your best options, review potential costs and savings, and determine the steps forward to improve your programs. Free assistance can be provided online or in-person. Contact the apartment recycling program coordinator to request assistance by emailing apartmentrecycling@hennepin.us.
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