How to Reduce Waste and Energy Use During the Holidays

As we enter the holiday season, it’s easy to get caught up in the rhythm of planning, shopping, celebrating, and everything else that comes with this time of year. But with all the joy of the festive season, there also comes a large increase in electricity use and the overall volume of trash produced by households and businesses alike. 

During this period, household waste rises by about 25%, or roughly 25 million tons, while energy consumption climbs due to increased lighting, heating, cooking, and holiday travel. Even though the pollution footprint naturally grows this time of year, there are plenty of simple choices that can keep things lighter on the environment. Here are some sustainable holidays ideas to ease the environmental load while still enjoying the season fully.

Household waste increases 25%, or roughly 25 million tons, during the holiday season.

Switch to Eco-Friendly Holiday Lights

Using LEDs is one of the easiest ways to support more sustainable holidays without sacrificing the festive atmosphere. LEDs use a fraction of the electricity required by incandescent bulbs and stay cool to the touch, which makes them safer for both indoor and outdoor uses. A good LED can run for tens of thousands of hours before it burns out, which is why many of them last up to 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs.

Additionally, LEDs use far less power to achieve the same brightness because they emit light directionally instead of releasing excess energy as heat. This makes LEDs ideal not only for Christmas trees, but also for outdoor displays that run every night, like pathway lights or string lights along fences and railings.

Prevent Excess Food Waste

Food waste is already an issue in the U.S., but it really reaches its peak during the holiday season. Home cooking and the massive amount of food prepared and sold across stores and food businesses contribute to the surge.

The large amounts of food we buy and prepare is never fully consumed, which translates into millions of pounds of wasted ingredients, uneaten dishes, and discarded leftovers, all of which carry a heavy environmental cost. We’ve written a detailed article about reducing food waste at home, but the crux of food preservation is in planning ahead and storing food properly.

Avoid Buying Single-Use Plastics

It helps to pay attention to where the item you’re buying comes from and how it was produced, because gifts made from recycled materials or certified sustainable sources are much easier on the environment. 

Single-use plastics are the main materials to avoid because they take decades to break down. Each year brings another round of small novelty items made from single-use plastics, and most of them end up getting tossed shortly after the holidays.

Instead of buying cheap plastic items, focus on quality over quantity. A thoughtful gift doesn't have to be expensive; it can be something you’ve repurposed, a small DIY project, or a store-bought gift that's made from natural materials.

Get a Real Christmas Tree

Choosing a responsibly grown, real Christmas tree is one of the simplest sustainable choices we can make. Real trees are grown as a renewable crop on land that often remains undisturbed for close to a decade. Once the holidays are over, the tree can be chipped or composted, which returns the material to the environment instead of locking it into landfill space. From a safety standpoint, real trees also spare you the potential chemical exposure that can come with PVC-based materials.

Artificial trees require a far more complex production process before they reach your living room. Production relies on plastic and metal, manufacturing typically happens overseas, and the final product travels a long way before it’s sold. As a result, choosing a real Christmas tree is typically a more environmentally responsible decision

Use Your Oven More Efficiently

Your oven is probably going to get more use than usual this holiday season, but that doesn’t mean it needs to run any longer than necessary. According to energy.gov, anything that cooks for an hour or more, such as roasts, casseroles, baked potatoes, or slow-baked desserts, will reach the right temperature on its own as the oven heats up. Modern ovens warm up much faster than older models, so the extra 10 to 15 minutes of preheating time is often unnecessary.

You can also take advantage of the oven’s retained heat by switching it off near the end of cooking. As long as the door stays closed, the temperature remains high enough to finish the dish without using additional electricity or gas. 

Reduce Phantom Energy Use Before Travel

Anyone preparing for a longer holiday trip should keep in mind that a surprising number of devices continue drawing electricity even when they’re switched off. The Department of Energy estimates that standby power can account for 5% to 10% of a household’s total electricity use, and in some homes it’s even higher. 

Use Environmentally Sustainable Candles

For a sustainable Hanukkah, consider choosing beeswax or soy candles. Most inexpensive candles are made from paraffin, a petroleum-based wax produced as a byproduct of oil refining. It burns quickly and releases small amounts of compounds that contribute to indoor air pollution. None of this is dramatic or dangerous in small doses, but it’s worth mentioning. Another option is using palm-oil candles, so long as the palm oil is sourced from certified, responsible growers. 

Declutter Before the Holidays

Even before the holidays begin, most people already have a mix of older decorations and forgotten items that make the house feel more crowded than it needs to be. With the holidays approaching, now is the time to declutter. As you sort through things, the main goal is to separate what you actually use from what’s just taking up room. 

Keep what’s useful, donate what’s in good shape, recycle what you can, and move anything that belongs elsewhere back to its proper place. Asking yourself whether you used something this year, whether it still fits your style, or whether it can be repurposed to make those decisions easier.

Pro tip: Store everything in clearly labeled bins so you can add stuff from this year to it. You can use any box or baskets to group items by category.

Choose Reusable or Low-Waste Gift Wrap

About 2.6 billion pounds of wrapping paper are thrown away every year in the U.S. To avoid contributing to that waste, you can reuse packaging paper from online orders, plain brown bags, leftover tissue paper, and even old maps or craft paper. From this, you can make simple, low-waste wrapping that looks good and doesn’t require buying anything new. If you want ideas for folding, tying, or decorating, there are plenty of great tutorials on YouTube.

A Smarter Way to Handle Holiday Waste

Our goal is to make responsible disposal simple for homeowners and businesses. We offer roll-off dumpsters in a wide range of sizes, so whether you need a full home reset, or you're managing seasonal waste at a storefront, you can choose exactly what fits your needs.

We also work closely with local haulers and recycling facilities to make sure as much material as possible is diverted from landfills. Ordering is quick, delivery is reliable, and our pricing is completely transparent. No hidden fees or surprises. 

Order online or call us at 732-366-9355 to schedule a dumpster rental today.