Create memories, not garbage

The holiday season can be a time of great consumption, but it’s still possible to create plenty of memories while also staying low waste. The 'Create Memories, Not Garbage' campaign has all kinds of ideas to help guide you through making thoughtful decisions about your shopping, shipping, packaging gifts, cooking, decorations and more.

With COVID continuing to affect our daily lives, many people’s gift buying habits have shifted. Many are taking care of their holiday shopping early, supporting local businesses, using curbside pickup or having items shipped to their homes. If the shipping materials that arrive on your doorstep can’t be reused, they can likely still be recycled. And there are still many ways to create memories, not garbage, as we get into the holiday spirit with our loved ones near and far.

Regional District Waste Reduction Facilitator Cynthia Coates says, “The ‘Create Memories, Not Garbage’ campaign is courtesy of our partners at Metro Vancouver.   It’s a festive, fun, resource friendly campaign providing some great gift and wrapping ideas that people may not have thought of, including alternate ways to celebrate with less waste.  Many of the ideas involve getting together (while following COVID protocols), but there are still many ways to give gifts of experience, or tangible gifts that last. Create Memories, Not Garbage promotes reducing the amount of waste generated during the holiday season.”

For some extra help with great gift ideas for that special someone, why not get creative and give the gift of experience instead of more stuff!  Treat someone to a trip to the spa, start a new hobby with a loved one, re-gift a favorite novel or board game, give on-line art classes.  These all help to ‘Create Memories, Not Garbage’.

Here are some other memory making ideas to get you started:

• Offer your dog walking or cat sitting services
• Sign someone up for an online cooking class or online theatre show
• Make homemade treats for friends and neighbours
• Gift a movie or sporting event experience
• Organize a winter snow shoe or hike with your family bubble
• Sponsor a child, charity, rain forest cause in lieu of gift

Thoughtful gift giving can dramatically reduce the amount of packaging and wrapping that accumulates and can encourage opportunities for us to create new holiday traditions. Some of these waste reduction ideas might be practical throughout the coming year!

Watch for the Create Memories campaign on social media, online, and print. It’s all in an effort to encourage not making waste in the first place and reducing what comes into and leaves our homes. 

For information on how you can ‘Create Memories, Not Garbage’ this holiday season, visit rdco.com/creatememories email recycle@rdco.com or call the Regional Waste Reduction Office at 250-469-6250.