rubbish!

We hosted the family Christmas lunch this year, which means we ended up with the associated mountains of rubbish. Unbelievable how much paper and plastic packaging is discarded in one day!

We currently have a full rubbish bin, a full recycling bin, mother-in-law took home some recycling and we dropped off more rubbish and recycling today, and brother-in-law accidentally packed the bag full of prawn heads and other assorted stinky waste on Friday when he was putting all their stuff into the car (hopefully he's realised by now ...). There is more in the kitchen, two big garbage bags of as yet unsorted wrapping paper and toy packaging in the loungeroom, and we still have two days of normal household rubbish and recycling to store until the bins are emptied.

I think the recycling will take a few fortnights of collections to finally dispose of. Just insane!

So I'm going to try to reduce my part in all this next year, and look out for specials on tea towels and other useful fabric items and ribbons to wrap gifts. Even if people don't need more tea towels, I figure they're more likely to pass it on to someone else, or even donate it rather than throwing it out. Maybe scarves, shawls, small tablecloths, pillowcases and bandanas could also be used. Sturdy, attractive, reusable boxes might be another option.

Any other suggestions?