Robbinsdale Staff Offer Tips for Sustainable Holiday Gift Giving
(CITY OF ROBBINSDALE) – The holidays are meant for spending time with friends and family, enjoying traditions, and celebrating, but it can also be a time for generating a lot of waste. So here are some quick tips on how to sort your holiday gift-wrapping materials.
Shiny or glittery gift wrap is not able to be recycled.
When we’re unwrapping presents, it’s easy to toss everything into the trash, but a lot of wrapping materials can actually be recycled, composted, or reused.
Even though it looks great, shiny or metallic paper can’t go in the recycling, so this will need to go in the trash.
Oftentimes, ribbons are reusable. If you can, try to collect these and store in a little box for future wrapping.
Inside we have an LED light! These use less energy and last longer, which is an easy way to save energy at home during the winter.
Another wrapping option is to use plain kraft paper, which can go in the recycling. You can also make gift tags out of paper, so they can be recycled too. You can use natural twine as wrap around the gift instead of ribbon, and the twine can be reused or composted. A decorating flourish like a little evergreen sprig can go right into your organics bin.
Gift bags are a low-waste options because you can reuse them over and over. Be sure to first remove the sticker tag, which always go into the trash.
Plain tissue paper here can go into organics. If it had glitter or metallic printing, that would need to go in the trash instead.
Newspaper, which is one of the easiest low-waste options, can go straight into your recycling as long as it’s clean.
For more sustainability tips and resources, go to the City of Robbinsdale’s Sustainability page.
