Give the Earth a Gift this Season and ReThink Your Holiday Waste

Give the Earth a Gift this Season and ReThink Your Holiday Waste

WHAT:
This holiday season give the gift of sustainability by rethinking your waste during the  holiday season, including incorporating some of these tips:

For Holiday Gatherings:

• Use plates, serving wear, cups and utensils that can be washed and used again.
• Plan meals according to the number of guests.
• Ask guests to bring reusable containers to bring food home in.
• Coordinate dishes that use some of the same ingredients.
• Any leftovers that you weren’t able to use or freeze should be brought to a food waste drop off location which can be found here orlando.gov/foodwaste
• Recycle your used cooking oil. Place it in a shatterproof container (the one it came in is a good option) and bring it to a City of Orlando drop off location were it can be turned  into bio-diesel. Find drop off locations at orlando.gov/grease

Online Shopping:

• Choose the longer shipping option or the one that allows your items to arrive at the same time, in one box. This reduces shipping materials and delivery vehicle trips.
• What to do with packaging materials:
  • Styrofoam should be placed in the garbage.
  • Plastic air cushions should be deflated and taken, along with plastic bags, to your local grocery store to be recycled.
  • Flatten boxes and cardboard packaging can be placed in your recycling cart or recycling dumpster. Oversized boxes can be flattened and taken to a drop off location. For a list of locations, visit orlando.gov/recycling.
• Buy from a company that uses recycled or sustainable packaging.

Gifts and Gift Wrapping:

• Items that you can recycle:
  • Standard greeting cards and envelopes without shiny paper or glitter
  • Cardboard and gift boxes, flattened (leaving large merchandise boxes at the curb for collection may send an unintended message to would-be-thieves. Instead, break them down and bring to a recycling drop off location.)
  • Kraft paper without shiny embellishments
  • Cardboard tubes from the center of wrapping paper
  • Natural tree, free of decorations – put out with yard waste
• Try to reuse these instead of throwing away:     
  • Gift bags
  • Artificial tree
  • Decorations
• Put these in the garbage:
  • Greeting cards with glitter, foil or glossy paper
  • Metallic or foil wrapping paper
  • Styrofoam packing materials

MEDIA INSTRUCTIONS:
For demonstrations on how to ReThink holiday waste and/or interview opportunities with City of Orlando Solid Waste Division Manager Mike Carroll, please contact Samantha Holsten, City of Orlando Public Information Officer at Samantha.Holsten@Orlando.gov.

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