We generate an estimated 30% more waste during the festive season in New Zealand – we'll get through 1.6million kilogrammes of wrapping paper alone, that's equivalent to 10,000 trees. We’ll create 25 million kilogrammes of plastic packaging waste, and we'll throw away a third of our Christmas food. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The Tauranga community has made an impressive effort reducing the amount of waste going to our landfills since the launch of the new kerbside collections in 2021, nearly halving the amount of household waste going to landfill each year. And to help reduce the amount of festive flare ending up in our landfills, Tauranga City Council's Sustainability and Waste team has some practical tips for reducing waste without compromising on the Christmas magic.

Get started early 
Much of what we enjoy using for Christmas that ends up in our landfill can be made at home with existing materials or reused for years to come. Make sure you have enough time to plan and gather the materials to make your sustainable decorations, Christmas crackers, gifts, and cards to prevent a mad rush to the mall on Christmas Eve for their plastic or unrecyclable alternatives. Click here for how to make Christmas crackers.

If crafting isn’t your thing, select your purchases with the environment in mind, making sure the products and their packaging are made from natural resources and can be recycled. You can find out more about what can be recycled at tauranga.govt.nz/recycle.

Real or artificial trees?
If you already have an artificial tree, the best thing you can do is to continue using it for many years to come, as the PVC plastic (or plastic #3), commonly used in artificial tree manufacturing, can’t be recycled here in Tauranga.

If you prefer a real tree in your home at Christmas time, consider composting, chipping, or using the tree as firewood after the holidays instead of sending it to landfill. The most sustainable option is a potted, living tree that can be replanted and reused each year. Alternatively, you can rent a living Christmas tree from a local business, returning it after the holiday season to be nurtured until the next year.

Waste-free decorations
If your tree is looking a little bare and would benefit from a decoration refresh, home-made decorations are more creative and sustainable than buying new plastic ones. You can make decorations from everyday items like shells, cinnamon sticks, dried orange and apple slices, or fallen leaves and pinecones.

Gifting experiences
Gift cards, dining experiences, massage vouchers, memberships, or donations to charity are a great way to avoid more traditional and sometimes unwanted gifts that can end up forgotten in the back of a cupboard or in our landfills.

Waste-free wrapping 
Old maps, newspaper, recycled textiles, magazines, children’s drawings or recycled brown paper bags are great options to use for wrapping gifts instead of conventional gift wrap (especially glossy and metallicized types, which mostly can’t be recycled).

Reusable gift bags are a smart option. Sew up some of your own or find New Zealand-made gift bags online, they come in packs of different sizes and shapes to suit most gifts and can be used year after year.

Conscious food shopping
Careful planning and preparation helps us enjoy our kai over the busy festive season while also reducing our food waste. Simple things like creating a shopping list before visiting the supermarket helps us avoid overbuying, while serving meals in stages and refrigerating leftovers promptly between courses means leftovers can be saved for later. Giving leftovers to guests to take home means you won’t be left with more than you can get through yourself, and making the most of leftovers on Boxing Day is a great way to cut down your food waste while also taking a well-deserved break from preparing meals. Check out Love Food Hate Waste for more ideas.

Changes to kerbside collections this Christmas
Kerbside collections continue throughout the summer holiday period, but if your kerbside bins are usually collected on a Wednesday, Thursday or a Friday, your collection day will be one day later than usual for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays – from Wednesday, 25 December (Christmas Day) to Friday, 3 January. This is to give our kerbside collections team a well-deserved break on Christmas and New Year’s Days. To those households impacted by this change, please place all bins at the kerbside before 7am the day following your regular collection day during this time, for example, if your usual day is Friday, please place bins before 7am on the Saturday.

If you have extra glass, recycling or rubbish that won’t fit into your bins on collection day, you can either save it for future collections or take it to Te Maunga Transfer Station (as bins with lids that won’t close, or overfilled glass recycling bins, can’t be collected). Extra recycling or glass can be dropped at the transfer station free of charge, and you can drop up to four 60L bags of rubbish for $5.50 each bag (maximum weight of 10kg per bag). Anything over the four bags will revert to standard charges based on weight.

Te Maunga Transfer Station will operate regular hours over summer (Monday-Friday 7.30am-5pm, Saturday-Sunday 8.30am-5pm) except on these days:

• Wednesday, 25 December: Closed for Christmas Day
• Thursday, 26 December: Open 8.30am-5pm for Boxing Day
• Wednesday, 1 January: Closed for New Year’s Day
• Thursday, 2 January: Open 8.30am-5pm for the Day after New Year’s public holiday

Thanks for another year of sending less to landfill Tauranga.

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