2. Make your own Christmas decorations

Think about buying a potted native tree like an Albany Woolly Bush for your Christmas tree this year. Home-made Christmas decorations from recycled materials will add an extra special touch to your tree, while natural Christmas wreaths from the garden are fun and easy to make.

3. Use recyclable gift wrapping

Aussies use more than 150,000km of wrapping paper during Christmas which is enough to wrap around the world four times. Gift wrapping often contains glitter and other mixed materials which makes it difficult to recycle. Rather than buying expensive wrapping paper, why not get back to the basics and wrap gifts in cloth or with recyclable brown paper, newspaper and string? Reusable gift bags are another great way to reduce waste as these can be used over and over again. 

4. Cut back food waste by planning your meals

Did you know 90 per cent of Australians throw away more than 25 per cent of their food during the festive season? Food waste generates methane which is a harmful greenhouse gas. This Christmas, try to plan your meals ahead so you don’t buy too much food which ends up going to waste. Endless platters of cold meats and sweets can be excessive so think about ways you can cut back on your waste and gift any leftovers to your family and friends. Additionally, try and reduce purchasing packaged and processed foods by cooking from scratch – this usually also makes for a healthier and more waste-free Christmas.

5. Reduce, reuse and recycle!

Lastly, remember the 3 ‘R’s. Reduce your waste, reuse what you can and recycle as much as possible. All glass bottles, metal cans and hard plastic containers can be recycled in your yellow-top comingled recycling bin.

For more information on what can and cannot be recycled, visit the Recycle Right Website

*nationalstorage.com.au