Landfill-In-Waiting, Rethinking Holiday Stuff

Before You Buy It: Ask "Is This Just Future Landfill?"

Your Planet-Friendly Pick

A sustainability tip from Molly Robertson

We have turned holiday decorating into another form of fast consumption. From plastic pumpkins and light-up ghosts to glitter-covered signs, inflatable Santas, and battery-powered stocking stuffers, store shelves are overflowing with inexpensive seasonal merchandise—much of it difficult or impossible to recycle and designed for a remarkably short life.

When I walk into CVS, Walmart, or Target during the holidays, I can’t help but wonder: How much of this stuff will be in the garbage by spring? From Halloween through Easter, we are encouraged to buy more decorations, more trinkets, and more plastic for every holiday that comes along. It’s cheap, it’s festive, and it’s everywhere. But where does it all eventually go?

Mostly, away. And “away” usually means the landfill.

I suspect a lot of us already feel uncomfortable with the sheer amount of stuff lining these seasonal aisles. But stores keep filling their shelves with it for a simple reason: we keep buying it.

So what if we started asking ourselves one question before something lands in our cart:

Do I really need this—or is it just future landfill?

Our choices as consumers matter. When we buy less disposable holiday décor, we send a message that we don’t need an endless supply of plastic decorations designed to last a season or two. Less demand eventually means less production—and less trash. Americans already generate an estimated 25% more household waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Do we really need to add another cartful of what I like to call “landfill décor”?

This doesn’t mean giving up the fun of decorating—quite the opposite. Choose real pumpkins and paper decorations at Halloween. Bring out the same treasured decorations year after year. Decorate with greenery, pinecones, and natural wreaths at Christmas. At Easter, use real eggs, spring flowers, and baskets you can reuse for years.

The holidays don’t need more stuff to make them special. Buy less, reuse more, choose natural when you can—and leave the landfill décor on the shelf.