The University Record, November 23, 1998
Holiday recycling tips include homemade gifts
By Rebecca A. Doyle
With the onset of the holiday season, Waste Management Services urges everyone to be aware of the increase in waste and offers a few tips for reducing and keeping under control the amount of material that makes its way to landfills during and after the season.
The following tips are taken from the fall 1998 issue of Recycling Matters, a newsletter distributed by Waste Management Services to keep the University community aware of recycling activities on campus and to offer help in continuing them.
Ways to reduce holiday waste:
• Use reusable shopping bags.
• Buy gifts that are durable, reusable, energy efficient and won’t go out of style quickly.
• Give gift certificates to restaurants, movies, hot tub parlor, spa, massage therapist, or tickets to concerts and sporting events.
• Make gifts like cookies, artwork, photos.
• Give a personal coupon book with coupons for yard work, babysitting, cookies, a trip to a museum or amusement park.
• Cut covers off old greeting cards and use as gift tags.
• Use edible or compostable items like popcorn or cranberry strings to decorate trees.
• Wrap gifts in fabric scraps, reusable gift bags, newspaper comics, maps or calendar pages.
• Save for reuse or recycle gift boxes. Drop off extra packaging material like peanuts and bubble wrap at businesses that can use them. (Call 800-828-2214 for a list of businesses that recycle packing materials.)
• Use film in 36-frame rolls. This reduces waste by 67 percent over using 12-exposure rolls.
• Have a white elephant party after the holidays. Set out and let guests bring anything they don’t want, then choose an item to replace it.
You can always drop us a line: [email protected].
