Consumer recycles: Christmas means a lot of packaging waste

A significantly higher amount of packaging waste is generated at Christmas compared to a normal weekend. Large amounts of packaging waste, as well as the holidays falling on weekdays, may cause delays in emptying operations at some packaging waste collection points.

“Large cardboard boxes, in particular, can fill up ecopoints. That’s why we encourage customers to store their packaging waste at home for a while if necessary. There’ll be plenty of time to recycle packaging waste after Christmas so people can focus on the festivities,” says Pertti Tammivuori, Rinki’s Operative Director in charge of the ecopoints.

Many consumers are already familiar with sorting instructions for the Christmas holidays

The Christmas sorting procedure is easy for consumers to remember as most of the rules apply all year round. Cardboard boxes from gifts and cardboard food packaging must be carefully flattened to save space, and consumers are reminded that only packaging waste is collected, not items such as broken Christmas decorations.

“There has been a lot of discussion about how to recycle batteries this autumn. Broken Christmas light sets along with their batteries must be taken to an electrical goods collection point; they pose a safety risk if recycled with packaging waste or mixed waste or just left in a drawer,” Tammivuori points out.

Rinki is once again involved in the Kinkkutemppu campaign

Rinki is joining the Kinkkutemppu (Ham Trick) campaign again this year. The campaign collects cooking fats from Christmas dishes to be recycled as raw material for renewable diesel. For example, the fat from one medium-sized ham makes enough renewable diesel to drive for three kilometres. There are almost 250 cooking fat collection points across Finland.

“Collaboration with the Kinkkutemppu campaign is important to Rinki as we’d like to see all the ingredients of a happy Christmas, from gift boxes to ham fat, being recycled. Recycling ensures that the festive joy is sustainable,” says Rinki’s CEO Juha-Heikki Tanskanen.

Sorting instructions for Christmas:

• Wrapping paper and ribbons go into mixed waste.
• Recycle tealight cups and aluminium casserole trays with metal packaging.
• Broken Christmas decorations, such as tree ornaments, as well as glass candle holders go into mixed waste.
• Take broken Christmas lights and LED candles to an electric goods collection point, and don’t forget to tape the ends of batteries!
• When sorting a chocolate box, put the cardboard box in the cardboard collection, and the plastic wrapper and the plastic tray in the plastic packaging collection.
• Take cooking fat from Christmas dishes to a Ham Trick collection point or let it set and dispose of it with biowaste.
• Do not leave your Christmas tree at a Rinki ecopoint, but check your municipality’s instructions on how to dispose of your tree.

You can find more detailed sorting instructions here – Rinki thanks all diligent recyclers and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!