A bottle of wine, a bag of nuts, a bar of chocolate, and a scented candle. It’s a familiar sight that appears in many Christmas gift baskets in December. Yet about half of what’s in traditional Christmas gift baskets ends up either in the waste bin or unused in the pantry. With a sustainable Christmas gift basket, you can prevent that. You’ll choose products that employees actually use, local, fair-trade, and circular products, and packaging that can be reused or recycled.
Why isn’t a traditional Christmas gift basket sustainable?
The brainstorming session about this year’s Christmas gift basket is probably already in full swing at your organization. That makes sense, since the basket is a nice gesture toward employees. But if you look at it through a circular lens, you’ll quickly spot a few snags.
Take the pantry, for example. At first glance, what ends up there doesn’t seem like a waste. Yet the expiration date often passes unnoticed, and when the pantry is cleared out a few years later, those artisanal chips end up in the waste bin after all. This happens more often than you might think, because the gift basket isn’t always to everyone’s taste. One-third of working Dutch people feel that the Christmas gift basket doesn’t suit their tastes, and one in five would rather not receive a Christmas gift basket at all.
How much waste does a Christmas gift basket generate?
And that’s not even counting the box itself. Once the products are taken out, you’re left with a mountain of cardboard, plastic wrap, ribbons, and Styrofoam. It’s one of the reasons households produce an average of 30 percent more waste in December than during the rest of the year.
How can you factor circularity into your choice of Christmas gift basket?
The good news is that with just a few conscious choices, you can already make your Christmas gift baskets more sustainable. Start by asking what your employees actually want. Let them choose what they receive, or give them the option to donate their Christmas gift basket to a charity. There’s more support for this than you might expect: 36 percent of workers are willing to give their basket away.
At Milgro, we do this ourselves. Our Christmas gift basket is filled with products from sustainable businesses in the Rotterdam region, and anyone who’d rather make a contribution can donate the value of the basket to a charity.
If you do choose a gift basket, take a critical look at what’s inside and how it’s packaged. Choosing local food and drinks reduces transportation miles, and with organic or fair-trade products, you have a better idea of the conditions under which they were produced. When it comes to consumables, choose something made from renewable or recycled materials that will last a long time, not a gadget that will end up in a drawer after January. Not sure if your Christmas gift basket is sustainable enough? Run through this checklist:
☐ Employees can choose what they receive
☐ There’s an option to donate to a charity
☐ Food and drinks are organic, fair trade, or locally sourced
☐ Consumables are made from renewable or recycled materials
☐ The supplier is a local, sustainable business
☐ The packaging is plastic-free and reusable or made from recycled materials
☐ At the office, packaging waste can be sorted and collected after unpacking
How do you sort the waste from a Christmas gift basket?
Even after unpacking, there’s still a lot to be gained, especially if it’s done at the office. That’s because you have control over where the waste ends up. Clean cardboard boxes and paper bags go in the paper recycling, but heavily soiled cardboard and tape belong in the general waste. Empty, clean plastic packaging goes in the PMD bin (plastic, metal and drink cartons). Complex packaging, such as potato chip bags, is unfortunately difficult to recycle and goes in the general waste.
Empty bottles and jars go in the glass recycling bin, and metal lids and cans go in the PMD bin. Glass with paint or a coating does belong in the general waste, as do glitter decorations. And the ribbons? You can often just reuse them.
When the Christmas gift baskets are being handed out, set up a few recycling bins for cardboard, PMD, and glass. This ensures that waste streams are properly separated right away. Our free posters can help with this. Hang them above the recycling bins, and everyone will know at a glance where to put cardboard, plastic, and glass.
The posters are also useful after the Christmas season. The basic package covers the most common waste streams, such as paper, glass, PMD, cans, food waste, textiles, electronics, and general waste. Do you handle larger or more specific waste streams? Then choose the package for bulky waste (including wood, metal, flat glass, construction and demolition waste, rubble, and soil), plastics (EPS, LDPE, PET, PP, and Styrofoam) or hazardous waste (such as batteries, fluorescent tubes, paint, glue, sealant, resin, solvents, and used oil).
Download our free waste separation posters.
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