By Amy Wren

The silly season is upon us! While it’s all fun and games it’s also, unfortunately, the time of year our planet gets hurt. 

This time of year people are consuming the most, which ultimately means more excess waste going into landfill.  With a bit of organisation and education, use this time of the year to your advantage.  As luck would have it, we’ve put together a little list, full of tips and tricks of ways you can be more ‘recycle savvy’ this summer holiday season.

With so many extra beverages being consumed it’s the best time of year to collect eligible bottles and cans that ultimately means you get more bang for your recycling buck or some Crunch credits, too.  While we’re here, let’s also iron out some confusion around how much of the plastic, glass and paper that you use over the festive season can be recycled.

So here goes, it’s time to take advantage of the extra amount of containers going around, reduce your carbon footprint, and recycle correctly after Christmas.

Collect your eligible bottles and cans.

Of course, it all starts with collecting your eligible bottles and cans. Why not become the ‘Recycling Warrior’ of your neighbourhood and collect everybody’s containers, too. Communicate with family and friends to collect together all the containers that are consumed this Christmas season. Collect together and choose to redeem the Crunch credits for a gift card to share with the whole family or donate to a charity. We also do home collections if you have over 500 containers.

Get Creative & Reuse.

There are so many ways we can get creative and reuse this Christmas. Try using brown butchers paper instead of traditional plastic-coated wrapping paper, and save it for next year. Wrapping paper, gift cards and gift tags can also be upcycled into Christmas decorations. You could even make a fun school holiday activity out of it with the kids, dust off the arts and crafts kit and create your own. Being environmentally friendly can also mean being creative and having some fun.

Start a compost.

Composting is a household norm to some but did you know 1 in every 5 bags worth of groceries goes into landfill in Australia each year. There is definitely room for improvement across all households. Make sure you freeze any leftovers from Christmas day and compost all your leftover scraps. And, don’t forget you can also throw disposable paper plates, napkins, paper towels and cardboard in the compost, too!

Clean up after Christmas, correctly.

It’s important to recycle what is able to be recycled and dispose of your excess waste correctly. Unfortunately, most Christmas decorations are not recyclable because they are made up of lots of different components like glitter, paint and glue which makes them impossible to process. All general recycling needs a good rinse to ensure it is free from any contamination. Champagne corks, broken glass and smashed plates are also unable to be recycled and need to go into your general waste bin. Unless you can find a use for them at home like a fun children’s craft project. You can now also recycle plastic bags and soft plastics at REDcycle drop-off points located at all Coles stores. It’s important to note that if any recyclables are inside a bag (even if it’s paper) all items will be sent to landfill. Remember: put it in loose so it can be of use.

By Amy Wren