Carol Baldwin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
As the holiday season approaches, the Ministry of Environment encourages people to embrace the true spirit of the holidays by gifting shared experiences this year.
“As we head into the holiday season, it is important to remember the choices we make can have a lasting impact,” Environment Minister Travis Keisig said. “I encourage everyone to explore ways to responsibly manage and be mindful of waste this Christmas season to ensure a more sustainable future for all Saskatchewan families.”
According to Canadian Research Council Research, there are over 10,000 landfills in Canada. Landfills are responsible for a quarter of Canada’s methane emissions. As Canada’s landfills are reaching their capacity, and finding new sites is becoming more challenging, new solutions are needed fast. According to 2022 findings, Saskatchewan residents generated the second-highest amount of waste per capita in the country. In 2022, each person produced about 729 kilograms of waste, nearly 15 percent less than in 2014, but there is still work to be done and the average household’s waste increases during the holiday season.
The festive season is known for generating excess waste, with as much as 25 percent more waste produced compared to other times of the year, according to the non-profit organization Zero Waste Canada. Additionally, only about one percent of everything the average person buys is still in use after six months, as noted in the same report. This is why environmentalists emphasize the importance of reducing and reusing during the holidays.
There are many ways to minimize holiday waste. Start by writing shopping lists to avoid impulse purchases and reduce food waste. When it comes to gifting, consider making personalized, handmade gifts, or giving the gift of experiences, such as a cooking class, concert tickets, or a day out together. It can also be helpful to ask gift recipients to create a wish list before the holiday season to avoid guessing. Guesswork often leads to unwanted gifts that go unused or are returned, and unfortunately, returned items are unlikely to be restocked and resold.
When planning those special meals that go hand-in-hand with holidays create a meal plan to avoid overbuying; make a plan for using leftovers – send some home with guests or look for recipes to use them differently in a second or third meal. To avoid overbuying to ‘make sure there is enough’, have non-perishable foodstuffs such as nuts in tins and packaged chips or pretzels for guests to snack on that can be opened as needed. “The trick to reducing waste during the holidays is to think about what we’re trying to accomplish – spending time with loved ones, showing appreciation to the people in our lives – and find ways to do that using fewer resources,” Waste Reduction Council Executive Director Joanne Fedyk said.
Wrapping paper and cardboard boxes are other significant sources of waste during the holiday season. To determine if your wrapping paper is recyclable, conduct the scrunch test: if it remains scrunched, it can be recycled, but wrapping paper that contains glitter or foil cannot be recycled. Before recycling wrapping paper, remove any plastic tape, tags, bows, or ribbons. These elements can hinder recycling and should be separated from the paper. Once the non-recyclable components are removed, you can place the wrapping paper in the designated paper recycling bin or take it to a household waste recycling centre. For sustainable gift wrapping, use old maps, newspapers or comics; decorate boxes or containers that can be reused year after year; or wrap in fabric (using techniques like Furoshiki), that, again, can be reused. Consider wrapping gifts in fabric brown paper, or reusable gift bags. Adding natural elements like twine, dried flowers, or sprigs of greenery gives gifts a personal and eco-friendly touch.
When selecting Christmas decorations, using recyclable or biodegradable items is a great way to build a sustainable Christmas. For example, why not choose decorations made from natural materials that can be composted or recycled instead of plastic? Look for second-hand décor at thrift stores or online thrift sites like Facebook Marketplace. Try to use decorations that are reusable and not specific to an event or holiday, like customizable letter banners, decorations without a specific theme, or colours that could work for multiple events.
Recycling is often seen as the solution to the escalating waste problem, but the real solutions in waste reduction are other R’s like ‘reduce’ and ‘reuse’ and expanding the 3-Rs to 6-Rs. Within the waste hierarchy, there are six agreed-upon principles of sustainability: rethink – question old habits, refuse – make selective choices, reduce – minimize consumption, reuse – extend product lifecycles, repair – shift the mindset from dispose to repair and extend life and recycle – a familiar but expanding concept.
There is an interesting Japanese term: “Kintsugi” (golden joinery) or “Kintsukuroi” (golden repair). It refers to the art of mending broken pottery with gold. The pottery is then considered to be more beautiful for having been broken and repaired. While most of the products people have that they may want to repair aren’t pottery, and they are probably not going to use gold to fix them, people can get into that same spirit. Online tutorials created by people willing and eager to share their experience and knowledge, can help troubleshoot a problem with any given product, and help find a solution or a repair.
Recycling remains a crucial component of waste management but should be considered a last resort. If there is no alternative and an item can not be avoided, resold, donated, or repaired, then recycle it. Environmentalists say the excessive reliance on recycling needs to become obsolete and instead collectively work towards the goal of a future of reduced consumption.
The Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council, a registered non-profit and charitable organization, is dedicated to helping the people of Saskatchewan reduce waste. As a non-governmental organization, its funding comes from many sources, including members. More information on waste reduction and tips about recycling and composting can be found on the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council’s website: saskwastereduction.ca
