It’s the season of giving, but it’s also the season of garbage.
The Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO) is urging you to 'create holiday memories, not garbage' this winter.
“Create Memories, Not Garbage is a festive, fun and friendly resource, providing some great gift and wrapping ideas that people may not have thought of, including alternate ways to celebrate with less waste," explained Cynthia Coates, waste reduction facilitator with the RDCO.
"Many of the suggestions involve getting together, but there are still many ways to give gifts of experience or tangible gifts that last.”
The idea is to give gifts of experiences rather than more stuff that is often in plastic packaging, needs wrapping paper and could even be a gift that produces more waste when it’s in use.
The RDCO offered up a number of interesting suggestions:
There is no way to completely escape giving physical gifts around the holiday season, but Coates says you can take steps against producing waste if that’s the route you choose to take.
“You can always make choices on packaging that’s more easily recyclable in our program,” said Coates. “A really good portion of the packaging is recyclable so we can still get that away from the landfill at least and have it recycled.”
Another suggestion is using reusable gift bags rather than wrapping paper and if you must wrap, avoid foil based papers because they’re not recyclable.
You can also use things like newspaper to wrap your gifts, or a tea towel that can be put back into use after present opening is complete.
