At Allovus, we believe in being responsible stewards of the environment. There’s so much waste during the holidays—from wrapping paper to uneaten food to dried up Christmas trees. When we saw the newsletter sent from our local waste disposal company with tips on how to reduce holiday waste, we thought we’d share the information with you!

Gift giving

• Give experiences instead of “stuff”. Tickets to a game, a play, or a museum make great gifts and will certainly create nice memories instead of clutter. Other ideas include wine tasting, movie tickets, a day trip, weekend at a cabin, or even horseback riding.
• Shop local. Support local businesses in your community and save shipping cost and excess packaging.
• DIY gifts can be meaningful and fun to make as well as to give. Handknitted scarves, homemade jelly or jam, or handcrafted soaps and bath salts are just a few ideas to get you started.

Food Waste

• Cook once, eat all week. Save nights on busy weeknights by prepping multiple meals you can eat all week. By setting aside one weekend day to prep and cook, you’ll have less food going bad in the fridge. You’ll use up the ingredients instead of forgetting them in the crisper.
• Repurpose your leftovers into new dishes! Roast turkey on one day becomes delicious turkey sandwiches complete with cranberry sauce the next day.

Tree recycling

• Remove all decorations and tinsel before you recycle your tree!
• Some waste companies have a special day for tree recycling, but not all do. In some areas, local boy scout troops will pick up undecorated trees on the curbside in early January.

Recycle items

(remember: only plain wrapping paper can be recycled. Glittery or metallic paper cannot be recycled.)

• Plain gift wrap
• Plain cardboard boxes
• Cards and envelopes
• Catalogs
• Flattened cardboard boxes

Reuse or donate

• Gift bags and boxes
• Ribbons and bows
• Artificial trees
• Decorations
• Toys