Sustainable Holiday Tips from your friends at Salinas Valley Recycles!
The holidays are a wonderful time to be with friends and family, which can also generate more waste than at other times of the year. Here are some tips this holiday season to really get the most out of your holiday spending!
THANKSGIVING
Nothing beats a home-cooked meal and being surrounded by loved ones! Here are some Thanksgiving tips that will make sure every dollar spent on hosting goes a long way.
- Collect & recycle your cooking oil. Do not put oil down the drain because it wreaks havoc on sewer pipes and gets to be very expensive to repair or replace.
- Refrigerate your food within 2 hours to save for delicious leftovers.
Separate your meal-prep scraps, cooked bones, and plate scraps into the green cart.- Consider serving guests with real plates and tableware. But, if using disposable, be sure they all go into the trash.
- Glass bottles, glass jars, metal cans, and aluminum (like pie tins) can all go into the recycle cart – just keep them free of food and liquids.
BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY
Black Friday is a huge contributor to the landfill. After the massive increase of shopping in our community, comes the tidal wave of “stuff” that gets thrown to the garbage. Here are some tips to avoid contributing to our shared landfill that can also save you some cash!
- This may sound radical…. but consider letting go of the Black Friday tradition. The Black Friday savings can’t compare to spending zero dollars when you buy nothing. Take a moment to ask yourself – do I really NEED this stuff?
- If you decide to purchase new electronics to replace the old ones, don’t throw them away! Recycle them at our facilities instead and save on landfill fees.
- Mattresses & appliances are a hot ticket item this time of year. If you are replacing existing ones with new ones, both are accepted at our facilities to recycle free of charge!
- If in the past, you’ve used this day to purchase holiday gifts, consider the gift of creating instead of consumption. Create something really cool for your loved ones, shop a small business, or gift them an experience. This creates a new memory for them that will last a lifetime.
CHRISTMAS
As they say, it’s the most wonderful time of the year! Here are some sustainability tips to give you a joyful gift-giving holiday.
- Gift consciously – there’s power in our purchases. Choose sustainability with each purchase you make! The packaging, the shipping, the materials, etc. It all makes a difference.
- Try wrapping with repurposed materials – those paper grocery bags make for aesthetically pleasing wrapping paper. Add some natural elements for decoration and you have yourself a thoughtfully-wrapped gift! Then keep your bows & ribbons stored for next year.
- Most wrapping paper is recyclable! If it isn’t “shiny” and it is made from paper, toss it into the recycle cart after you’ve opened your gifts. Please be sure it is free from ribbons and bows.
When you’re ready to dispose of your Christmas tree, your waste hauler will pick it up curbside for free! Check with your hauler for best practices and deadlines to put trees curbside.- Recycle your string lights by bringing them to our facilities! They can be dropped off into our “e-waste” containers.
However it is that you celebrate, we thank you for doing your part this holiday season to keep our community healthy for generations to come! We hope you find these tips helpful, and that they keep a few bucks in your wallet too.
