How to Clean Up Responsibly after Christmas

Santa has come and gone, the gifts are unwrapped, and your house is littered with mounds of ribbons, paper, and empty boxes.   For those living a sustainable lifestyle, the waste in this scene resembles a horror show.

According to the EPA, from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25%. Added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons - it all adds up to an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. What's the best way to dispose of all this junk, preferably without digging a new landfill in town?

There are eco actions you can take to responsibly dispose of your waste and practice eco awareness in your holiday clean up. The sustainability concepts of reduce, reuse, recycle can easily be applied here.

Reduce:
Reduce paper by sending thank you notes electronically. In our personal consulting, we've used Blue Mountain's eco friendly themed ecards. For professional thank you notes, try SaveATree cards.

Reuse:
Bubble wrap and packing peanuts can be reused. If not by you, then by someone searching Craigslist or Freecycle. Mailing centers such as The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. will also accept them. Because holiday gift bags are often made with plastic and paper, recycling may not be the best option. Opt for reusing them instead.   Replacing holiday decorations? Donate the old ones to avoid sending them to the landfill.

Recycle:
Sort the wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, cards, plastic, boxes, candy wrappers etc into paper and plastic bins to recycle. Recycle your Christmas tree. Not sure how? Visit Earth911 to find a recycling center in your area. iRecycle, for iPhone users, makes it easy to find recycling locations anywhere in the U.S. Find places to drop-off items, get directions and find out what else they accept.

Not only can responsible holiday clean up avoid adding more waste in the landfills, it can also be a time of starting new family traditions of eco awareness.