Christmas is a fun time when you bring home gifts, cards, buntings, eatables, trees and a lot of other items to make this occasion a special one. After Christmas however, you see overflowing dustbins and rubbish all around in streets and backyards. There is excess amount of waste especially during this holiday period. This is mainly due to excessive eating, drinking and spending in every household. You end up stacking way more than you require, leading to just wasted junk that has to be disposed off after Christmas.

After you throw a Christmas party you may find your house full of items to be either stored or discarded. But a better idea is to Recycle and Reuse them in some way. You can always reuse Christmas cards for crafts or even recycle Christmas cards. Firstly, you could make ornaments. You could make cinnamon stick ornaments in order to decorate your Christmas tree. Cinnamon sticks could be wrapped together with the help of a ribbon and pretty shapes cut from cards could be attached on them.

Another use could be to make Napkin rings. These could be used for your Christmas table. For this you need to cut colorful strips from Christmas cards and staple them so as to form a loop. Also, you could cut out large letter shapes from old Christmas cards these could be used to stick-tack your kids name on their bedroom door or let them play other alphabet games if they’re in the process of learning their ABC’s.

There are several charities that recycle Christmas cards. The Woodland Trust Scotland is a very popular charity in the UK that works for this cause. They also sponsor annual campaigns to collect cards so as to recycle old Christmas cards. Even the Post office collects cards for a nominated charity. There is a UK recycling scheme that is mentioned in every local newspaper, so when after Christmas you wish to do something about the cards, don’t throw them, pick up your newspaper and follow instructions.

Here is how to recycle Christmas cards. Firstly, there may be a provision to recycle those in your community along with other paper waste. As mentioned earlier, the various charities that are working for this cause are mentioned in your local newspaper. Find out about their campaigns where they collect these cards during the holiday season. You could even use it for crafts, some ideas are there in this article, and others are available online on various sites.

There is a solution to the excessive waste after the holiday season, and that is that we should buy durable gifts. Things that would break in a matter of days are just no use and will go to the bin. You should always avoid giving gifts that would require disposable parts later on. Remember to buy products with recycled content as we need to develop a market for recycled products. You could find various unique items like stationery, tableware etc. that is made of recycled material.

There are several recycled products guides online which contains a directory of recycled products. You need to consider buying products that are environmentally friendly. Also, try buying long lasting items rather than disposable ones so as to minimize waste in those overflowing bins. Support the cause in whatever way you can, Christmas is a time where you care for each other and show your love for each other. Love your environment too – don’t dump waste, recycle it!