From wrapping paper to discarded decorations, the holiday season sure takes a joyous, festive toll on the environment. Show Mother Nature just how much you love this time of year while asserting man’s dominion over the planet with these holiday upcycles that will make even more loads of trash when the season is over:
Wrapping Paper Wall Art
Environmental Impact: Deck the halls with overflowing landfills
Upcycle that used wrapping paper into festive wall art! Glue torn and crumpled paper onto a piece of Plexiglass you bought specifically for this project. Make it light up by attaching string lights to the back of the Plexiglass. Then December 26th, take the whole thing down and put it in the Dumpster because honestly, who has space to store that kind of stuff all year?
Holiday Card Confetti
Environmental Impact: Seven Swans A-Choking
Make personalized confetti by running holiday cards and photos through a paper shredder. Add some aluminum foil for a sparkle that says, “That sure is a hazard for wildlife!” Throw it into the wind to decorate the outdoors. You’ll never be able to pick up all of those pieces before they are ingested by vulnerable wildlife.
Ribbon and Bows Wreath
Environmental Impact: Non-biodegradable Christmas spirit
Make an adorable wreath with leftover bows and ribbons, which will create more one giant leftover that you can throw away later. Use a plate to trace a circle on cardboard. Break the plate and throw it away. Staple the bows and ribbons to your cardboard circle and glue plastic buttons all over it. Now that it’s completely unrecyclable, it’s ready to help fill up the town dump!
Broken String Lights Fish Feeder
Environmental Impact: A river you can skate away on, because it’s solid sludge
Use those burned-out string lights to make a fun fish feeder! Tie the string lights into a knot. Fill the knot with bread and peanut butter and throw it in the lake. You’ll feed the fish while making the water glow with chemical Christmas spirit! Let the ocean take care of the rest.
Empty Boxes Fort
Environmental Impact: Fun for the kids, who will live to see the drastic limiting of natural resources
Put all those empty boxes to use by making a fun fort! Attach all the boxes together in a fort shape; you probably won’t have enough, so go buy more. Add a realistic roof by attaching roof shingles and plywood. Spray-paint the fort in any color. Let the kids play in it for a week, get sick of it, then let the garbage man haul it away for eternity. Upcycled!
Over 500,000 tons of waste is generated from the holiday season alone, with these fun projects you’ll help get that up to one million tons of beautiful, Instagrammable #upcycled waste. Take that, enviro-nazis!
