Raleigh Encourages Creative Reuse to Tackle 25% Spike in Holiday Waste Nationwide

According to the solid waste and recycling industry, there's a 25% spike in waste production during the holidays compared to the rest of the year. This increase equates to about one million extra tons of trash each week, landing in landfills across the U.S. reports the City of Raleigh's official website.

It has been estimated that a colossal 2.3 million pounds of wrapping paper are discarded post-holiday joys, doomed to decompose in landfill sites. To counter this, Raleigh's waste management experts offer a simple "Scrunch Test" to check a wrapping paper's recyclability: if it stays scrunched, it's recyclable; if not, it joins the heaps of garbage.

The City of Raleigh encourages citizens to get creative with materials like brown paper grocery bags, repurposed to double as gift wrap, replete with hand-drawn designs; old cookie tins; or even fabric such as scarves, channeling the spirit of Furoshiki—the Japanese art of cloth wrapping. "Scarves, bandanas, and fabric scraps" can be elegantly folded around gifts and reused by your gift recipient for years to come, the City of Raleigh states, encouraging residents to rethink and repurpose their way through the holiday season.