Christmas has come and gone. Food has been eaten and gifts have been opened. What next?

Well, since you’ve generated all that waste, it’s time for some cleaning up and waste disposal.

Christmas waste is a real issue that calls for great concern because the amount of waste that is produced in homes during the festivities more than doubles, making it the most wasteful time of the year.

As a matter of fact, there is a significant increase in carbon footprint from the waste that is generated between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day and this is at the expense of the environment.

How then do you dispose of the waste that you generated from decorations and gifts in a way that the toxic chemicals and other harmful components in them do not harm living species and habitats? Well, we’ve got you.

Our ninth gift to you on our 12 Days of Christmas Special series is these 3 eco-friendly Christmas waste disposal hacks. Let’s get cleaning!

Christmas tree

We already established in our previous series that live Christmas trees are your best bet at sustainability at Christmas.

Now that you’ve stripped your tree of all the ornaments and lighting, the next thing to do isn’t to toss the tree in the bin.

You can search online for the nearest tree recycling center where it can be turned into compost or mulch.

We advise that you turn in your tree on time as most of the tree recycling centers offer their services at a set time.

Gift Boxes

The good thing about most gift boxes is that they are reusable (can be used for storage purposes) and the boxes are mostly made of cardboard, making them recyclable.

However, if they are made of glossy material, there’s not much you can do with them other than throw them away.

Wrapping paper

Not all wrapping papers are made of paper as the name suggests. Some are made either of mylar, which is a polyester film or foil, while some are made of thin, glossy plastic coating. This makes both of them unrecyclable.

So, what can you do with them? You can keep them away to be reused some other time.

If it’s the paper type of wrapping paper, you can either reuse them if they’re still in one piece or send them off to the nearest recycling center.

Christmas Cards

For cards made from 100% paper without sparkles or shiny bits, you can either choose to recycle them or repurpose them (you can cut off the front of the cards and use them as gift tags).

For holiday cards with shiny plastic coating or metallic glints, there’s no recycling possibility but you can always upcycle.

And so, our ninth day of Christmas ends. We hope you found our 3 eco-friendly Christmas waste disposal hacks helpful.

Join us tomorrow as what we will be sharing tomorrow is a surprise from the editor. Stay tuned.

Don’t forget to share our 3 eco-friendly Christmas waste disposal hacks. Happy holiday!