What To Do With All That Holiday Plastic

• Culture

The following is a reprise of a popular post on My Plastic Free Life.

By Beth Terry

What should we do about plastic gifts and wrapping we receive from well-meaning friends and family during the holidays? It’s important to have some strategies for avoiding acquiring a lot of holiday plastic in the first place. If you still end up with unexpected plastic, here are a few ideas for what to do with some of it:

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1) Packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and air pillows. If you’re not going to reuse them yourself, you can donate these back to a local mailing store like Mailboxes, Etc. Visit the website of the Loose Fill Council to find a drop-off location for packing peanuts. Whatever you do, do not put this kind of packaging in your recycle bin. They will not get recycled, but will cause problems for sorting equipment. Or, if you’re really feeling motivated, summon your inner activist and mail packaging back to companies, along with a note asking them to switch to a more sustainable material.

2) Plastic gift wrap, ribbons, and bows. Save these to wrap gifts in the future or for art projects. If you have too much of this stuff already, donate it to a creative reuse center or local school or community group for art projects. Check out the ReUse Alliance website to find reuse centers that will accept donations. Once again, these things cannot go into your regular recycle bin.

3) Plastic toys, dishes, and other kids’ items. Many plastics contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals like phthalates and bisphenol A that can be transmitted to your child. But what to do with plastic gifts can be a tricky issue. We don’t want to offend the gift giver or appear ungrateful, but at the same time, we want to keep children safe. My first suggestion, if you don’t want your children to have these things, is to try to return them to the store where they were bought. If the giver has included a gift receipt, this shouldn’t be a problem. If not, you may still be able to exchange them for a different item. Many stores relax their exchange policies for a period after the holidays.

If the store will not accept the item for return, then the question of re-gifting or donating comes into play. Some people feel okay donating these items to a thrift store, reasoning that it’s better for someone to buy these items second-hand than to create demand for them by buying them new. But others may not be comfortable donating an item that they feel is too toxic for their own child. In the case of PVC (polyvinyl chloride), one of the most toxic plastics, the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice actually recommends either asking the manufacturer to take it back, or disposing of it at a hazardous waste facility. Learn more about what items contain toxic PVC and what you can do to avoid it here. 

4) Plastic Christmas trees and lights. As with toys and other consumer goods, Christmas trees and strings of lights can also contain PVC, and one of the chemicals often used to stabilize PVC is lead. Lead in trees can be released in the form of dust as the tree breaks down over time. Now that the holidays are over, it may be a good time to rethink the kind of tree and lights you use next year. Contact the manufacturer to find out if your tree and lights contain lead. If so, do not allow children to handle them. Pack them up for the hazardous waste facility.

Beth Terry is a PPC ambassador, blogger, and author of Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too.

Photo:12th St David via Foter / CC BY-NC-SA