The Five Best Ways to Reduce Our Waste During the Holidays

The holidays are fast approaching and with them come all of their indulgences. Our holidays are filled with delicious food, presents, and decorating. And while they help us get into the holiday spirit, they unfortunately also bring with them wasteful practices and come at a cost to the planet.

The Yume team loves to celebrate the holidays, but throughout the years, we have been acquiring some nifty hacks to help lighten our footprint. We've put them all together for you below, so you can help the planet this season as well.

Make a list (and check it twice)

When doing our food shopping, we can often become overwhelmed by supermarkets and the Christmas specials that they advertise. According to a study by Nielsen Ad Intel, supermarkets spent 22% of their total ad spend during November/December as people start preparing for the holiday season. No wonder we might find ourselves spending more during our weekly shop! To prevent us from buying more than we need, we always make a shopping list before going to the supermarket or farmers market to do our Christmas food shopping.

Get creative with leftovers

While we all love Christmas traditions and the food that goes with them, nobody wants to eat the same, dry turkey four days after Christmas Day. To prevent food from going to waste, we get creative with our leftovers. Our favorite leftover recipes include this Turkey carbonara, Chocolate sundaes with pear and Christmas pud, and these Leftover Christmas lunch patties.

Pick the sustainable wrapping paper

Pick the sustainable wrapping paper. As well as getting creative with our leftovers, we try to opt for alternative wrapping paper for our gifts. Did you know that Australians use 150,000 km of wrapping paper every year? That’s enough to wrap around the Earth’s equator nearly four times! Instead, we use festive tea towels, glittering scarves, recycled paper (the paper from Who Gives a Crap toilet paper is great for wrapping!), or responsibly sourced and recycled gift wrapping paper.

Who Gives a Crap makes for fantastic (reused) wrapping paper!

Opt for sustainable gifts (and shop local)

COVID-19 has impacted everyone this year, and we haven’t forgotten about the local shops who unfortunately had to shut their doors while Australia was in lockdown. We’re choosing to give them some holiday love and are purchasing our presents from Melbourne-based small businesses when we can. An additional bonus: choose shops that are sustainable! Check out this guide to some of Melbourne’s best sustainable brands.

Give the best present of them all - experiences!

While we may not be able to gift someone an overseas holiday this Christmas, we’re still treating our loved ones to experiences they will remember. Gifting a voucher to the local massage parlor, a nice dinner at a restaurant, or a trip to the bouldering gym will leave your near and dear feeling extra special.

Are you trying to stay financially responsible as well? Create your own experiences! Throw a couple of scented candles in a dimly lit room and you’ve created your own massage parlor. Or put all those hours of watching MasterChef to good use and treat your significant other to a three-course meal. The opportunities are endless!

Still looking for more inspiration? Check out this handy guide to reducing your waste around Christmas-time!