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Holiday Tips

Sustainable Holiday Tips

Reduce your environmental impact during the holidays with some helpful tips.

Holiday Meals
Gifting
Know Where It Goes
Tree Tips

Holiday Meals

Buy only what you need

Calculate how much food you'll need for your guests with Save The Food's Guestimator.

Plan ahead to save water

With a little planning, you can save a lot of water when cooking holiday meals.

Defrost your holiday roast in the refrigerator rather than cold water and save 50 gallons of water! To thaw your turkey, allow about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds of turkey.
Swap a bowl of water for the running tap when rinsing fruits and vegetables. Then use it to water plants.

Compost it

Use your organics container instead of the garbage disposal for food scraps. Not only are you helping to turn food scraps into compost, but putting fats, oils, or grease down the drain can cause expensive sewer backups. Learn what to do with fats, oils, and grease instead.

Wash up

Most new dishwashers don’t require pre-rinsing dishes. Instead, save water by placing them right in and waiting for a full load to run. If you have to hand wash dishes, plug the drain and fill your sink with soapy water.

Use your leftovers

Use your leftovers to cut down on food waste.

Send leftovers home with guests in reusable containers.
Try new recipes. Save The Food offers recipes for using up holiday leftovers and Big Oven searches recipes based on ingredients you have on hand.
Freeze what you can't finish.

Gifting

Shop local

Shopping locally supports our Bothell businesses while reducing your impact on the environment. Don't miss the Pop Shops on Main supporting minority and women-owned small businesses.

Gift experiences

Give your loved ones the gift of a fun experience. Try tickets to a game or show, look for upcoming cooking, art, music, or fitness classes, book a spot on a tour (anything from kayaking to chocolate factory tours), donate to a cause close to their heart, or give a membership to a local business or organization.

Give the gift of waste reduction

Look for gifts that help your loved ones reduce waste. From reusable food wraps and storage containers to bamboo toothbrushes, the options are endless.

Wrap up the holidays

Get creative with your gift wrap this year! Old maps, posters, calendars, sheet music, paper shopping bags, and newspaper make great repurposed wrapping paper.

You can also try Japanese cloth wraps called furoshiki. Furoshiki, both a style of gift wrap and traditional Japanese wrapping cloth, can be made from fabric squares from old textiles or made new and reused for years to come.

If you'd rather go classic, look for gift wrap without foil or glitter so it can be recycled later. Check out the Know Where It Goes tab for more recycling tips.

Know Where It Goes

Did you know Americans throw away 25% more trash from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day? Make sure your waste goes to the right place.

Wrapping Paper

Recycle wrapping paper right with Recology’s gift wrap guide.

Special Item Recycling

Recology customers can visit The Recology Store or schedule curbside collection of Styrofoam, household batteries, old bikes and bike parts, small appliances and electronics, cooking oil and kitchen grease, textiles, and more.

Holiday lights can be recycled at locations throughout King County.

Tree Tips

Live trees

Consider buying a live tree and planting it outside after the holidays. Once in the ground, the tree adds value to your landscape and helps soak up excess rainwater.

Compost your Tree

If you have a cut tree, compost it when the holidays are over. Recology offers curbside tree collection for residential customers. Find out requirements.