Conscious Holiday Guide

Holidays and special events including religious holidays, festivals, birthdays, and family gatherings can be expensive and create a lot of waste. These tips can help to reduce holiday-associated costs, use items you already have, and reduce waste. 

Decorations and ornaments 

• Consider if any of your existing decorations could be upcycled, re-painted, or fixed
• Use fresh or dried flowers, greenery or, fruit to decorate;

• Floral wreaths
• Greenery garlands
• Dried fruit and spices ornaments
• Pinecone decorations 
• Salt dough decorations 

• Create your own decorations from items that would have otherwise gone to waste, such as using children’s drawings as decorations, carboard boxes for crafts, and milk bottles as lanterns 
• Rather than buying new, look at your local thrift stores for some decorations or holiday-themed items 
• Have you thought about buying or making items that can be reused and personalised, such as a special plate to use at every birthday, fabric advent calendars, or use photos from previous holidays as decorations
• If you are buying new, buy multi-purpose decorations that can be used for different occasions or holidays

 

Holiday lights 

• Switch off your lights when going to bed, or put your lights on a timer to turn off overnight to reduce energy costs 
• Repair your lights rather than buying new
• If buying new lights, choose LED lights as these use less energy 

 

Gift giving

• Buying second-hand items, or re-gifting is a great way to give an item a new life and score a bargain 
• DIY gifts can be personalised and unique 
• Experiences are a fun gift for an individual, group or family 
• Gift edible or consumable gifts such as home-made cooking, jam or cordial, your favourite snacks, coffee or tea, household cleaning or personal hygiene items 
• Gift items that are good quality and durable, can be reused, or have a low environmental impact 
• Consider if the item could be bought locally to support small businesses and reduce the environmental footprint of your gift 

 

Wrapping paper alternatives  

• Recycled paper – reuse paper bags as wrapping paper, comics from newspaper, old maps, magazines, brown paper
• Upcycle glass jars – repurpose glass jars for consumable gifts and home-made gifts
• Reusable wrapping “paper” – use reusable materials like fabric, tea towels, scarves, and beeswax wraps to wrap gifts, these can be reused as a gift wrap or for another purpose 
• Reusable gift bags and boxes - recycled bags, cotton bags, reusable boxes and baskets make for a thoughtful personalised gift packaging 
• DIY wrapping paper - repurpose paper to be used as wrapping paper, make your paper unique by adding drawings and prints
• Decorate your gift with dried fruit, flowers, plants and greenery, handmade bows from paper off-cuts, or reuse ribbon and other decorations 

 

Festive food

• Minimise food waste by considering the number of people you are cooking for, and only buying as much as what is needed 
• Share leftovers with guests, have guests bring their own reusable containers to fill with leftovers 
• Australia has amazing, fresh seasonal produce. Mmake recipes that highlight and utilise this produce 
• Shop local to support local businesses and agriculture
• Make sure that all food is stored at the right temperature to get the most out of your groceries
• Utilise what would otherwise be thrown out for zero waste recipes - use citrus rinds to make cordial syrups, extra fruits and vegetables in smoothies, herbs and greens in pesto, or veggie scraps to make stock

 

Holiday waste 

• Consider what waste you are producing, then identify what waste can be reduced, recycled, composted, or re-used
• Reducing waste

• Using reusable cutlery, serving ware, napkins, and crockery 
• Store food properly and safely 

•  Recycling
  • Cardboard, drink cans, foil trays, greeting cards, empty takeaway containers, plastic cups, and unwaxed wrapping paper can be put in kerbside recycling bins 
  • Glass jars and bottles should be disposed in kerbside purple bins 
• Reuse 
  • Reusing decorations and ornaments for other events
  • Reuse leftovers for other recipes 
• Composting and FOGO (Green organics bin)
  • Use your home composting for all appropriate organics waste 
  • Food waste including bones, dairy, seafood including bones and shells, meat, and vegetables can be disposed in FOGO bins
  • Greenery, flowers, and leaves can be disposed in FOGO bins

 

Check our A-Z Guide: What Goes in What Kerbside Bin?

We have created a short version of these tips that you can view here.(PDF, 317KB)