Did You Know - Christmas Waste

Published on 17 December 2025

Reducing Waste at Christmas

Christmas is the most wasteful time of the year – we should probably rename it Wastemas! It is wasteful for a whole variety of reasons – not the least of which is that we are all trying very hard to make Christmas wonderful and that means we sometimes forget some of our waste reduction and recycling lessons.

Here are some tips to help with that.

Gifts with meaning

While it is nice to be able to give gifts, you don’t have to break the bank to do it. If you are having a big family gathering, rather than buying something for everyone, have a Kris Kringle or Secret Santa and allocate one gift per person with a fixed limit for spending. Just remember that not everyone may be in the financial position to afford to give a gift this year so this may help.

Remember the gift does not need to a ‘thing’ either. It might be something you will do – like washing the car for them or making a nice dinner. Experiences like concert tickets are or voucher to a local café or restaurant might also be a good option.

It is all in the wrapping

While it is very much part of the fun of Christmas, one of the biggest sources of waste each Christmas is wrapping paper. In Australia we use more than 8,000 tonnes each year – that is about 50,000 trees! Alternatives to wrapping paper are reusable gift boxes, newspaper for an artistic look, the Japanese method of Furoshiki (fabric wrapping), or environmentally friendly wrapping paper.

Steer clear of metallic or glossy wrapping paper, as this kind of material is difficult to recycle and hard to reuse.

Throughout the year, consider keeping the wrapping paper from presents that are given to you and your family to reuse it at Christmas. Large wrapped presents usually have enough wrapping paper to wrap 2 or 3 smaller gifts.

The Christmas aftermath

Hopefully, once you’ve implemented all the above tips you won’t have a lot of waste to think about! But once the holidays are over, make a conscious effort to store away what you can so that you can reuse it next year. Things like wrapping paper, decorations and Christmas lights can be stored away and used year after year.  The initial purchase might be cheap, so it can be tempting to just buy fresh ones next time, but it’s that consumer behaviour that’s fuelling the environmental challenges we have today.

Christmas food

At Christmas, the amount of food that is wasted increases even more than usual. We buy too much, we over cater and we often don’t store the food well on hot days.  So how can we do Christmas a little better?

Plan Portions

Before you plan your Christmas meals, think about how many people you’ll be cooking for and how big the portion sizes should be.  You can use a portion planner that covers all sorts of foods and tells you how much you need to cook, so that you can avoid the temptation of buying too much. It might even save you some money too.

Be Savvy On The Day 

If you’ve got any leftovers after Christmas dinner, cool them and cover them, ensuring they go in the fridge or freezer within 1-2 hours.

If you have a lot of one type of food, splitting it into smaller portions will help it to cool quickly and means you can freeze and defrost only what you need for future dishes,

You can freeze turkey, other meat and meals cooked from previously cooked and frozen meat. But once defrosted, you should eat the food within 24 hours.

Get Creative with Meals

If you’re left with a bucket load of ham, turkey and vegetables, don’t chuck them away. Instead, make your leftovers into new meals and either eat them the following day or freeze them.

Why not wrap up any leftover meat and use it - together with some stuffing, sauces and salad - in sandwiches, wraps and rolls for the next day?

Christmas turkey makes a fantastic boxing day salad when served with some leafy greens, sweet orange slices or sliced peaches, cranberries, a few chopped walnuts  and your favourite salad dressing.

When it comes to vegetables, there really should be no issues with using this up. There are so many easy and convenient ways to re-use yesterday’s vegetables such as in soups, stews and casseroles. Serve with some warm wholemeal bread for a perfect Boxing Day lunch.

Stay Safe

If you’re planning on eating leftovers which haven’t been frozen, you should aim to eat them within two days and make sure they are refrigerated.

If you freeze leftover food, make sure that you do so within two days and, when you come to use it, ensure you defrost the meal thoroughly in the fridge overnight and then reheat until steaming hot.

It is also a good idea to label any foods that go into the freezer with the name of the dish and the date you made it, so you know what it is and how long it’s been there.