Richmondites have come together again to brainstorm ways to reduce holiday waste — with great success.
The City of Richmond invited community members to join the Holiday Waste Think Tank back in the fall and ended up getting as many as 174 ideas.
Almost a third of the ideas had come from Grade 7 students at Diefenbaker Elementary, who got into teams to generate ideas and present them to fellow classmates and to the community.
“It takes all of us working together to make significant progress towards reducing our waste and implementing more sustainable options. The impressive ideas shared by these students feature some excellent steps we can take over the holidays,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie in the city's media release.
“My thanks go to the students, their teacher Ms. Setareh Foroushani and all of the community members who participated in the Holiday Waste Think Tank.”
The city's Holiday Waste Think Tank collected ideas from Nov. 12 to Dec. 14, 2022 and participants were asked to share ideas that can apply to the holidays. It builds on the Rethink Waste Think Tank initiative that took place last fall.
All ideas, including for reducing holiday waste, are summarized on the city's Community Ideas Hub web page.
The ideas have been grouped into five main categories — gathering, gifting, decorating, wrapping and eating. Here are some of them:
Gathering
This category consists of ideas for coming together for the holidays, and suggestions include hosting virtual parties, carpooling or taking public transport to events, sharing leftovers with guests using reusable containers and volunteering together.
Gifting
Presents don't always have to be physical objects, as donating to a person's favourite charity, gifting subscriptions and online gifts or doing experiences as a group would also make great gifts. Other suggestions include gifting a single gift with "White Elephant" or "Santa Sack," thrifting, supporting local businesses and regifting your posessions.
Decorating
Holiday decorations are perfect for getting the creative juices flowing, and some environmentally-friendly ideas include using scrap paper and fabric for homemade ornaments, decorating potted plants instead of Christmas trees, switching to LED lights and borrowing or swapping decorations with neighbours and friends.
Wrapping
Richmondites also came up with innovative ways to make their gifts look pretty without creating more waste. For example, clothes or dishtowels can be used as wrapping, wrapping supplies from birthdays and other holidays can be reused, or put gifts in reusable containers.
Eating
To enjoy a nice holiday meal without worrying about the extra waste, Richmondites suggested creating a holiday meal plan to avoid buying too much food, freeze leftovers, choosing food with less packaging and avoid single-use items and composting food scraps for use in the spring garden.
