Did You Know That Your Holiday Waste Increases by 25%?

Media
Oct 24, 2025
1 min read

Reduce Your Holiday Waste

During the holidays, household waste increases by more than 25 percent. The additional shopping bags, packaging, discarded costumes, candy wrappers, food waste, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons all add millions of extra tons to our landfills. Fortunately, residents have options to help minimize your environmental impact through mindful consumption and recycling!

Halloween:

Trick-or-treating: Choose reusable bags or pillowcases instead of plastic bags.
Pumpkin recycling: After enjoying the seeds and using the meat for baking, recycle your pumpkin in your green organics cart. Don’t forget to remove any candles or lights beforehand!

Thanksgiving:

Composting food scraps: Leftover food scraps, including meat, bones and prepared foods can all be recycled in your green organics cart.
Sustainable table settings: Use reusable dishes, glasses and silverware to reduce waste.
Energy-saving cleanup: Maximize dishwasher capacity to reduce the amount of cycles and save energy.

Christmas:

Gift wrapping: Use recycled or reused wrapping paper, gift bags, or newspaper. Please avoid paper with glitter or metallic finishes, ribbons, bows, and cellophane, they are not recyclable in your blue cart.
Christmas tree recycling: After removing all decorations, including ornaments and lights, recycle your tree in the green organics cart!