How to reduce your summer holiday waste

As the weather heats up, ensure you’re not sweating under the weight of expanding landfills by being more mindful about your holiday waste habits. Recycling more can help you live your best #SustainableSummer life, and TerraCycle is here to help you on this mission into the new year.

Read on to learn how the holidays impact the amount of rubbish we produce, and tips to keep a lid on your festive waste.

What’s ending up in landfills over summer?

Between Christmas and new year celebrations, musical festivals, beachside picnics, and school holiday adventures, there’s a lot going on under the summer sun. All this activity and a spike in tourism generates a lot of additional rubbish that often ends up in landfills or as litter in our environment. In New Zealand alone, there’s a 30% up-tick in waste created over the summer holidays, with a massive 400% increase seen in tourist hotspots.

This will come as no surprise to holidaymakers. Hard-to-recycle rubbish like flexible food wrap and kitchen cleaning supplies stacks up after parties, while thongs and wetsuits get a workout during summer beach sessions.

It’s also a major consumption period. This festive season, the average Australian expects to spend more than $1,479 on presents, food, alcohol, eating out, and travel. Considering a third of all food is lost or wasted and hundreds of millions of dollars go towards unwanted holiday gifts, the festive waste issue is painfully clear.

Keep holiday rubbish out of landfills for FREE with TerraCycle

There are plenty of ways to make your yuletide celebrations more sustainable. Consider shopping for preloved gifts (or making your own), crafting Christmas decorations from recycled or natural materials, ditching the power-sucking Christmas lights, or serving up sustainably sourced feasts. And when the party’s over, what could be more satisfying than responsibly recycling party debris? 

TerraCycle can help you recycle almost all of the rubbish that builds up over summer. We have a number of free programs to recycle rubbish that isn’t accepted by your council recycling service. Check out our recycling solutions for these holiday waste categories:

• Beauty, skincare and haircare empties. Once you’ve scraped the last remnants of product from sunscreen tubes, moisturiser tubs, pump conditioners and makeup kits, recycle them for free through our range of skincare, haircare, and makeup recycling programs in Australia and New Zealand.
• Old and broken toys. If your kids have said their final farewells to beloved toys that aren’t fit for charity donations, drop them off at BIG W stores around Australia for recycling.
• Worn-out thongs and wetsuits. Aussies can recycle any brand of wetsuit by dropping it off at participating Rip Curl stores for recycling through TerraCycle. The same goes for Havaianas thongs, which can be dropped off at participating retailers for free.
• Empty coffee capsules. Make a resolution to clean up your caffeine habit in the new year by signing up for TerraCycle’s numerous free recycling programs for coffee capsules in Australia and New Zealand.
• Used food storage wrap. Once all the holiday leftovers are devoured, make sure any cling wrap, snap-lock bags, and freezer bags are recycled by shipping them to TerraCycle through the GLAD Food Storage Free Recycling Program in New Zealand and Australia.

Did you know you can recycle festive rubbish with a Zero Waste Box?

If you’re looking to recycle holiday items that don’t fit within our free programs, check out our range of Zero Waste Boxes in Australia and New Zealand. This pre-paid option provides even more recycling solutions for common holiday rubbish, from fairy lights and party supplies to cork wine stoppers, e-waste, art supplies, gift wrapping, and much more.

You could team up with your family to order a box or two and ensure rubbish from the whole clan is disposed of responsibly. Or, since the upfront price of a Zero Waste Box covers the entire recycling process – from shipping to sortation and processing – it also makes a fabulous gift!

Share your #SustainableSummer

Help inspire your community by sharing your recycling efforts online and tagging us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.